Werewolf By Night is the next big MCU addition, and it was revealed that the movie will be quite bloody. What does that mean for the MCU?
It all started with Deadpool. Deadpool and Logan. They kind of started that r-rated comic adaption trend on the silver screens, and it made a whole lot of sense. Deadpool can't possibly be PG and Wolverine never should have been, so in that regard it's also the natural choice for their upcoming team-up to be r-rated as well. But... do other MCU movies really need to be any darker?
The last Thor movie was revealed to have cut a lot of r-rated scenes, so we can expect them to find their way back into the inevitable director's cut. I'd also argue that the Winter Soldier & Falcon series was not quite that PG, and, on Disney, Moon Knight and The Punisher are as r-rated as it gets. Personally, I liked the idea that the Marvel TV universe is a bit grittier, with its street-level heroes, but I never expected the MCU to get so grim, yet here we are with Werewolf By Night representing the pinnacle of MCU darkness.
Werewolf By Night Is Surprisingly Bloody
Director Michael Giacchino stated that he always intended for the movie to feature the bloody violence that's typical for the genre, and just kept going when there was no pushback.
Well, it was one of those things where no one said no. I just kept pushing. I knew that we were going to balance that with heart and humor and humanity and empathy and all of that. And as long as we kept that balance in tow that I felt like we had some leeway to push on the horror side.And look, we're dealing with monsters, monster movies, and I felt like we needed to just go into that realm, just not be afraid of it. And if that meant, 'Sorry, you're going to have to edit this,' somebody came into my room. And if that meant that we were going to try some new things, we were going to try some new things. The big joke on set became when they would be like, 'All right Michael, how is this? Is this good?' I'd be like [Giachinno grimaces], I would start to say something, and they'd go, 'Let me guess more blood. You want more blood, right?
Maybe these violent liberties boil down to the fact that the movie is 'just' a feature made for Disney, but since Feige confirmed the movie will have MCU relevance... it might just be that the MCU going forward will be a lot different from the MCU we're used to.