Wolf Man is the latest in a long line of classic horror creatures getting the reboot treatment and we seriously can’t wait. The revival of the Universal Monster movies seemed dead in the water back in 2017 with Alex Kurtzman’s adaptation of The Mummy starring Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, and Russell Crowe. The lackluster reception to the fantasy action-adventure saw the planned Dark Universe – the shared Universal Monster universe, like a twisted version of the MCU – sadly cancelled and future projects scrapped. However, Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man of 2020 put the Universal Monsters back on the map after the horror maestro’s unique take on the villain, which also explored domestic and spousal abuse, took the world by storm.
Whannell’s unlikely hit earned a whopping $144.5 million against a production budget of $7 million, renewing faith in the potential of Universal Monster movies in a modern climate. And now, the Saw creator is helming another creature feature in the form of Wolf Man, an adaption of the 1941 classic. We know it won’t follow the exact same storyline, but much of the plot and indeed the monster’s terrifying form have been kept under wraps for now. But never fear! Here at FANGORIA, we have everything you need to know about Whannell’s upcoming werewolf movie – from trailer details to cast, release date, and more.
Wolf Man release date
Wolf Man will howl into theaters worldwide on January 17, 2025.
It was originally set to be released on October 25, 2024, but film bosses decided to postpone its theater debut by three months. While it means we didn’t get to see any werewolf action this Halloween in cinemas, it does mean we get to kick off 2025 with a big horror movie that will hopefully continue the successes we’ve seen from titles this year.
Background
As we’ve already touched upon above, Universal originally planned to produce a reboot of the Universal Monsters franchise under the title Dark Universe, uniting the films under one, shared cinematic umbrella. But following the box office bomb of The Mummy, all future planned entries were scrapped in favor of producing horror-driven standalone features, with Invisible Man being the first release.
Whannell’s take on the classic proved a hit, shifting the focus of the film from the Invisible Man himself to his victims, aligning the audience with Elisabeth Moss’ Cecilia and the terror she endures. ‘If you make him the central character, you demystify him in a way,’ the director told Den Of Geek in 2020. ‘If you make it about his victim, suddenly the audience is in the shoes of the victim. Suddenly the audience is wondering where this person is. Is he in the room with our hero?’
But that doesn’t mean the production of Wolf Man has been all smooth sailing. After the original project was scrapped, Ryan Gosling’s pitch to remake Wolf Man and star in it with Lauren Schuker Blum (and Rebecca Angelo on screenplay duties) started to get off the ground. Several filmmakers were considered to direct, including Whannell who initially declined but was advised by frequent collaborator and producer Jason Blum to reconsider.
Shortly after these initial talks, Whannell signed on but had to leave due to scheduling conflicts. Derek Cianfrance entered negotiations in 2021 and Wolf Man was officially greenlit in 2023 following the end of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. However, in December 2023, both Cianfrance and Gosling announced they would no longer be involved with Wolf Man due to scheduling conflicts, which seemed to be the silver bullet in the project. However, Whannell took over directing and writing the screenplay with his wife, Corbett Tuck.
Plot Details
The film’s official synopsis gives us an insight into Whannell’s vision for the remake, following a family haunted by a ‘deadly werewolf at night during a full moon.’ It reads: ‘Blake, a San Francisco husband and father, inherits his remote childhood home in rural Oregon after his own father vanishes and is presumed dead. With his marriage to his high-powered wife, Charlotte, fraying, Blake persuades Charlotte to take a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter, Ginger.
But as the family approaches the farmhouse in the dead of night, they’re attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside the home as the creature prowls the perimeter. As the night stretches on, however, Blake begins to behave strangely, transforming into something unrecognizable, and Charlotte will be forced to decide whether the terror within their house is more lethal than the danger without.’
It’s an entirely different story from the 1941 original, which followed Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) on his return to his ancestral home following his brother’s death. While there, he attempts to save local girl Jenny Williams (Fay Helm) when she is attacked by a werewolf, only to be bitten by the creature himself. While the original film dances with the idea of family through Larry and his brother, Whannell’s adaptation places family dynamics and how families deal with crisis front and centre of the narrative, making the classic creature tale more relatable – and more terrifying – to viewers.
Casting
Wolf Man boasts a monstrously phenomenal cast fronted by Christopher Abbott as Blake. The actor is no stranger to the world of genre cinema, having previously starred in the likes of It Comes At Night, Possessor, and Sanctuary.
He is joined by Julia Garner as wife Charlotte, fresh off her role as Terry Gionnofrio in Rosemary’s Baby prequel Apartment 7A. Horror fans may also recognize the star from TV miniseries Maniac as well as The Last Exorcism Part II.
The couple’s daughter, Ginger, will be played by Disenchanted’s Matilda Firth, who also made an appearance in folk horror Starve Acre alongside Matt Smith and Morfydd Clarke.
The Wolf Man Trailer
While Wolf Man’s official synopsis tells us the whos, the whats, and the wheres of the film, there’s nothing like a trailer to give us a real taste of the horror. And the film’s first full trailer does exactly that, introducing us to Wolf Man’s central family as well as the monstrous, hulking beast that hunts them while hiding enough of it to have us seated in theaters on opening night.
It plunges us straight into the action with a car wreck which results in Blake getting scratched by a werewolf and forcing the family to retreat to a desolate farmhouse to keep safe and wait until they work out an exit plan. While we’re used to sudden, bone-crunching, excruciating werewolf transformations on the big screen (akin to the classic An American Werewolf in London), it appears that Wolf Man’s might be slower, akin to a creeping sickness as we see Blake become increasingly ill and transforming into a new, monstrous form.
It forces Charlotte to protect Ginger, with the trailer ending on scenes of her running through a forest with the youngster and bearing a bloody knife at a grotesque assailant that could be Blake – or maybe we’re treated to multiple wolf men for our money.
The decision to keep the film’s titular creature from the trailers follows the likes of NEON smash hit Longlegs, keeping the monster in the dark until we’re watching the film. But at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights, fans thought they had gotten a full creature reveal with a man in a wolf-man costume appearing at the event. It’s a rumor Whannell quickly thwarted, telling Gizmodo:
‘Without spoiling anything, that’s not our Wolf Man. And I guess, movies have so many different people involved. It’s like this huge octopus with many tentacles and you can’t always control every single aspect of something. So sometimes something might get out there that doesn’t represent what you’re doing and it just falls through the cracks. So no, it doesn’t represent [our movie]. I think I would say Arjen Tuiten, who was our prosthetics designer and makeup artist on this movie, he’s a brilliant artist. I would put my money on him that he’s always going to give you something right.’
Production Insights
Principal photography for Wolf Man took place in New Zealand in early 2024 before filming kicked off in March. Blum took to X to announce the start of production, posting a picture of Whannell with a clapperboard alongside the caption: ‘Day one on the set of Wolf Man. Director Leigh Whannell pictured here. LFG!!!’
With production underway, Whannell opened up to Screen Rant about what it was that attracted him to the film after working on Invisible Man: ‘Yeah, it was an interesting project. It came to me right after Invisible Man. They said, “Do you want to do Wolf Man?” And at first, I was like, “I'm not sure, I just did Invisible Man.” And then I came up with an idea that I thought, “Oh, this version of the Wolf Man I would like.” And then I asked Corbett, my wife, we co-wrote it — she's over there on her phone. I was like, “Let's co-write something together.”
Wolf Man is right around the corner beckoning to us like the call of a full moon, and with such a heart-pumping, stomach-turning, intense trailer coupled with a powerhouse cast and crew, the film is sure to kick off 2025 with an almighty bite.
