Famous Marvel Character in “Werewolf By Night”: The Elephant Monster Explained in the New MCU Movie

Although “Werewolf By Night” is set on paper in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the new Marvel movie has little to do with the Avengers and other well-known MCU characters. But with werewolf Jack Russell (Gael García Bernal) and monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone (Laura Donnelly), at least two well-known Marvel characters take center stage – and a third character joins in the course of the story: A monster that at first sight reminds of an elephant, behind which the iconic Marvel character Man-Thing is hidden.

Man-Thing is a kind of Marvel counterpart to the DC monster Swamp-Thing, which was invented at the same time. In the Marvel Comics, Man-Thing is originally the scientist Dr. Theodore “Ted” Sallisdesigned to mimic the super soldier serum that Steve Rogers made Captain America.

However, he injects the immature drug out of necessity himself and after an accident in a mysterious swamp, the serum and magic transforms him into a gigantic plant creature. From now on he watches over the so-called ie the intersection of the various parallel dimensions of Marvel.

In Werewolf By Night, we learn that the MCU Man-Thing is also called Ted, so it’s safe to assume this version of the character has a similar backstory. We don’t learn much about the swamp creature, only that she and protagonist Jack apparently already know each other from previous adventures together.

But what does Man-Thing do in Werewolf By Night? The idea for it came from Marvel mastermind Kevin Feige, director (and composer!) Michael Giacchino told the site and Feige put extra pressure on him for appreciating the character and the associated comics.

and Giacchino explained that he deliberately didn’t want to show Werewolf-By-Night and Man-Thing as the villains of the film: “Far too often, even in Marvel movies, monsters are just there to be killed or defeated. But I think no, monsters are nothing more than a person with a problem that that person can’t solve and needs help with .”

It can’t always be about wanting to destroy different things, because there are already enough of them in the world, according to Giacchino. “I wanted to do something where we get to the heart of the matter and understand what’s behind the monster. Why is this happening? No monster wants to be a monster. They don’t want to randomly kill people and destroy things.”