The latest buzz is that Marvel Studios is looking to cast Jack Russell, a character also known as “Werewolf by Night” or as simply “The Werewolf.” This rumor, reported by Geeks Worldwide, is very vague. It isn’t specified in which project the character will appear or even whether it is a Disney+ TV show or a movie. But one very likely candidate is the ‘Moon Knight’ Disney+ series that was announced this weekend at the D23 Expo, seeing as how the character Moon Knight first appeared in the pages of 1975’s ‘Werewolf by Night’ #32. Russell also crossed paths with Blade, who is getting a movie, with Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali playing the Vampire Slayer, so that is another possibility.
‘Werewolf by Night’ himself first appeared in 1972’s ‘Marvel Spotlight’ #2, before landing his own series which ran for 43 issues, until 1977. Over the years, Jack Russell has encountered all manner of Marvel denizens. He co-starred in ‘Giant-Size Creatures’ #1 in 1974, in which the character Greer Nelson transformed from the enhanced human superhero The Cat into the “werewoman” Tigra. He also battled Marvel’s version of Dracula, and is considered one of the Midnight Sons, along with Blade, Morbius the Living Vampire, and other supernatural heroes and antiheroes.
Russell has never been as prominent as he was in the 1970s, so it’s pretty unlikely that he will get his own Marvel Studios TV series or film. Besides, how would they differentiate that from any other random werewolf movie? But it wouldn’t be a huge stretch for him to appear as a supporting character on ‘Moon Knight’ or in ‘Blade’.
In August, it was announced that Hulu would be offering two new series also starring three of Marvel Comics’ supernatural antiheroes, ‘Ghost Rider’ and ‘Helstrom’ featuring Damon Helstrom (The Son of Satan) and his sister Ana (Satana). Technically those shows (and all other existing Marvel TV series) are set within the same universe as the films, but they are not produced by Marvel Studios, so the connection is tenuous.
Even so, it appears that both the TV shows and films are delving into the dark world of the supernatural. What other Marvel monsters would you like to see appear in live-action?
