Werewolf by Nighthas been a triumph for Marvel Studios in more ways than one. As a – currently – standalone story set in a hidden world of monsters and monster hunters, the homage to classic black and white horror movies delivered thrills, scaresand one big chunk of Man-Thing. The introduction of that character was one of the biggest wins of the special presentation, and a fantastic achievement in practical effects, which has been seen by a new image of the phenomenal puppet used during filming.
Marvel Studios has often been criticized for its use of CGI, especially when the result is a little on the ropey side – ahem, Pip the Troll – but for Werewolf by Night it was an old school production for an old school monster movie. Many fans were not quite aware of exactly how much non-CGI work went into the special, and it has just elevated their love for Werewolf by Night and especially for Man-Thing aka Ted. In a post sharing the image of the mighty puppet,Michael Giacchinocommented:
“Never in my life did I think I’d be the one responsible for introducing this incredible character into the MCU. Big props to the original creators of Man Thing – Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway and Gray Morrow. Long live Ted!”
Related:Werewolf By Night Actor Has Interesting Take on the Special’s Place in MCU
Michael Giacchino Pushed For More Practical Effects
While many modern movies and fantasy TV shows are grounded very much in a CGI –based world, Michael Giacchino was a champion of the use of practical effects where possible, and it certainly paid off. While previously talking on ComicBook.com’s Phase Zero podcast, Giacchino praised the team behind Man-Thing’s life-sized animatronic, saying:
“When it started out, I was like, ‘Werewolf’s gotta be practical, let’s build a Man-Thing. Let’s see how far we can get with that? The folks with K&B craft studio, they did the most incredible job. They built a life-size Man-Thing. It was completely animatronic and its eyes glowed red. It was crazy and the hands were all motorized. So, yeah it was great. Now, it was mostly on-set so there would be something for the actors to work with.
I didn’t want there to be a guy with a tennis ball on the end of a stick saying, ‘Here’s the monster, look at this right here.’ I didn’t want that, I really wanted them to really engage with the character. Because I knew how big that character of Man-Thing was going to be. So, they could relate to him and be with him in the same space. So, we built all of that and our wonderful visual effects staff went over that with their incredible effects and brought it to life in a whole way.”
The work that went into Man-Thing and the rest of the effects of Werewolf by Night certainly paid off, as the special is one of the highest rated Marvel projects to date. Withthe world of monsters set to be a part of the MCUin future, here’s hoping that the strengths of Werewolf by Night can be carried over to other projects.
