Werewolf by Night: Why are they in black and?

After 14 years of the MCU being a force for good, with the release of 29 films and eight TV shows, it can be difficult to find new Marvel entries that will bring something to the table after all the success.

But that is something that can’t be said of Werewolf by Night, the newly released Special Presentation which has landed on Disney+ in the run-up to Halloween.

Marvel’s new arrival, the spooky and mysterious Werewolf by Night, is a departure from the majority of Marvel content in many ways. The most notable is the absence of color.

Werewolf by Night: Release date, plot preview

On Friday, October 7, 2022, Werewolf by Night slipped onto Disney+

Michael Giacchino (yes the composer) directs the special. It tells the story a secret cabal monster hunters emerges from the darkness and gathers at the foreboding Bloodstone Temple, following the death their leader.

Participants are forced to participate in a deadly, mysterious hunt to win powerful relics.

Marvel producer explains Why Werewolf by Night is in Black and White

As well as being Marvel’s first TV special and one of its first forays into all-out horror, Werewolf by Night is strikingly different from its MCU predecessors as it’s shown almost entirely in black and white, save for the scarlet glow of the mysterious Bloodstone.

This brings back the original WandaVision opening episodes in black-and-white due to their 60s and 50s-inspired setting.

WandaVision did use black and white to honor the likes Bewitched and The Dick Van Dyke Show, but Werewolf by Night uses it to evoke the dread and macabre of horror movies from the 1930s and 1940s.

Talk to ComicBookBrian Gay, coexecutive producer, spoke out about the use black and white. “What I think is it’s about the story. These are vicious monster hunters. They’re not gonna sit around and just have a nice dinner. We’re gonna get them out there. They’re gonna be fighting. They’re gonna be hunting. And with that, the story requires that we give you that scare.

“I think the black and white is something that makes it special and makes it, I’ll call it just like a little bit of an extra twist on top that makes you, ‘Oh, this is really different and this is cool.’ There’s a stylization to it that not only is an homage to those classic monster movies but just feels new within the MCU.”

Director reveals that color release was originally the original plan

While Werewolf by Night is given an iconic look and feel thanks to its black and white styling, that wasn’t the original plan as the special was filmed with a color release in mind according to Michael Giacchino.

The composer-turned-director is quoted by PolygonHe explained how he had always hoped that the special would be shown black-and-white, but that he needed help convincing Marvel boss Kevin Feige to agree to his plan.

“So we had a separate monitor that was only showing black and white, so I could still check how it would look,”Giacchino spoke about the filming process, before he would proceed to create a complete cut in black and white for Feige.

“And I remember when it was over, Kevin looked at me, and he goes, ‘I think we have to release this in black and white, don’t we?’” Giacchino added.

“So it was one of those stylistic things that I think everyone got on board as soon as they saw it,”The director continued. “It felt like the right thing to do for the spirit of the story we were telling.”

You can stream Werewolf by Night now Disney+After release on October 7, 2022.

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