Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Werewolf by Night and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
At first glance, the new Marvel Halloween Special Werewolf by Night seems to have little to no connections to the MCU as a whole. Of course, Kevin Feige has gone back to his usual press quote about how important this will be to the future of the MCU, but he says that about almost every new project that comes out. Michael Giacchino, making his directorial debut with this special after spending years composing music for Marvel and other major franchises, has said that he has ideas of how it connects to the larger universe. But ultimately, as it stands in this special, the connections don’t really matter, at least not yet. In an interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Giacchino would elaborate that they thought of this special operating like an episode of The Twilight Zone. This meaning that the whole special is just standalone and should function without any knowledge of previous entries in a franchise.
But just because the special stands alone doesn’t mean it’s completely barren of any connections or Easter eggs. There’s actually quite a bit of stuff sprinkled all throughout the special, and a lot of it is pretty subtle. Not only does the special connect to the larger MCU, but it also holds a lot of clues to where the universe is going next.
Another Side of the Universe
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The special opens with illustrations from what appear to be the journal of the world-famous monster hunter Ulysses Bloodstone (Richard Dixon), who perished just before the special began. The illustrations start with a drawing of the original six Avengers as the Narrator (Rick Wasserman) states that this story comes from the side of this universe disconnected from our favorite heroes. The illustrations then go on to explain the history of monster hunters and the magic bloodstone, a red artifact that kills all monsters. The bloodstone is held by the Bloodstone family, with it being passed down each generation.
These monsters and monster hunters properly introduce a side of the MCU that has only been hinted at before: the horror side. Horror characters have already shown up and led their own movies and TV shows, with even more coming in the future MCU phases. Two of the most notable characters that interact with this side of the universe are Blade (Mahershala Ali) and Moon Knight (Oscar Isaac) who have already appeared in the MCU.
Moon Knight and Werewolf by Night (Gael García Bernal) are closely connected characters, with Moon Knight making his first comic appearance in Werewolf by Night #32. Both of them are also members of Marvel’s Avengers of monster hunters, the Midnight Suns. Coincidentally, the Midnight Suns are also about to receive their own video game, so Marvel seems to be pushing these characters. Perhaps this all bodes well for a feature adaptation of the group.
Besides Moon Knight, the Midnight Suns also include Elsa Bloodstone and Man-Thing, who also appear in this special played by Laura Donnelly and Carey Jones respectively. Along with them, frequent members of the team include Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, Blade, and Morbius. The most notable of these characters that connects to the current Multiverse Saga is surprisingly Man-Thing.
The Nexus of All Realities
Man-Thing actually used to be a human scientist named Ted, who was trying to recreate the Super Soldier Serum in the Florida Everglades. Ted crashed his car into the swamp and instead of getting attacked by the Florida gators, he ended up in a dimensional rift to the Nexus of All Realities, which turned him into the lovable plant beast we see stomping around in Werewolf by Night. The Nexus of All Realities is the crossroads between every multiverse that exists outside space time. Think of it like a more important version of the gap junction in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the location where the Book of Vishanti was kept.
After this event, Man-Thing became the guardian of the nexus. Since Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Loki (Tom Hiddleston), and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) have all caused the multiverse to collapse in different ways throughout Phase 4, it seems natural that Man-Thing will have to intervene at some point. If the multiverse is at risk, an appearance from Man-Thing is never far off.
The Monster Mash
While this is the first time seasoned monster hunters have shown up in the MCU, it’s not the first time supernatural monsters have. In both Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the Wong (Benedict Wong) episode of She-Hulk, demons have featured prominently. Most notably, the ghouls the appeared to warn Doctor Strange that he broke some unnatural law when dream walking into the corpse of a dead version of himself from a different universe. He then turned those ghouls into a cape, so they clearly weren’t the most powerful of demonic entities. In the same film we also got an action scene with Gargantos, who another famous monster from Marvel lore.
In Moon Knight, the titular hero fought jackal creatures that also fall into the monster category. What separates monsters from other Marvel entities is that they all come from something supernatural. One of the most popular recurring supernatural forces in the Marvel Universe is vampires.
Blade is Back!
While Blade makes no appearance in the special, it does lay the groundwork for what kind of hero he is. Vampires have been slowly drip-fed into the MCU through a few passing references and cameos. In Loki, Mobius (Owen Wilson) makes an off-hand comment that dealing with vampires is easier than putting up with Loki. In She-Hulk, one of the members at Blonksy’s (Tim Roth) ranch for recovering villains is Saracen (Terrence Clowe) who claims to be a vampire. There’s also a stuffed head on a mantle in the Bloodstone mansion in the special, which Jack claims he fought multiple times, and that on the mantle is the most alive he’s ever looked.
Blade is Marvel’s premier vampire hunter and while he’s not in the episode, this is the world he operates in. Another connection to Blade is that in the opening segment with the illustrations in the monster hunter journal, there is a knight drawn among the others who worked with the bloodstones to fight monsters. Another famous Marvel character who is associated with both monster hunters and medieval knights is The Black Knight, who first appeared in Eternals played by Kit Harington. In the post credit scene for that film, he finds the Ebony Blade, a relic passed down his family line that originated as an evil counterpart to the mythical sword Excalibur. As he opens the case containing the sword, Blade approaches him off-screen to ask if he’s ready to wield a weapon so powerful.
While the special operates as its own contained story, it lays a lot of groundwork and world building for future entries in the MCU that have already been announced. It shouldn’t be too long of a wait for more horror in the MCU.
Werewolf by Night is currently streaming on Disney+.