The introduction of monsters and “werewolves” into the MCU has been a long time coming. Not only are they an intrinsic part of the supernatural that the MCU is slowly but surely embracing, but they also set up the introduction of a group of superheroes dedicated to fighting supernatural forces. We are talking about the Midnight Sons. In the comics, Werewolf by Night was one of the members of the group. So, his arrival at the MCU is a sign that others will arrive too. We already know that Dane Whitman, AKA Black Knight, and Blade, are in the MCU. We shall discuss more about them later. Let’s now talk about Jack Russell, AKA “Werewolf by Night.”
Spoilers Ahead
‘Werewolf By Night’ Summary And Ending
Monster hunters from across the world have come to the funeral of the most formidable hunter, Ulysses Bloodstone. His family has been in possession of Bloodstone, a supernatural relic that helps to kill monsters. With Ulysses dead, his wife Verussa has organized a ceremonial hunt that will decide who shall be the next one to wield the weapon. Amongst those who have shown up are Jack Russell, Ulysses’ estranged daughter Elsa Bloodstone, and four others.
A beast will be fitted with the Bloodstone and released into the grounds. The hunter who kills the beast and recovers the stone will claim it and lead the crusade against monsters. The hunt begins after the monster [Man-Thing] is released into the maze. As the hunters look for the monster, they also have to survive each other’s blow. While looking for the monster, Elsa faces and kills a hunter and enters what seems to be the burial room that stores the coffins of the Bloodstone family. Meanwhile, Jack encounters the monster and seems to be friends with it. He tells the monster about his plan to escape the place together. He then realizes that one of the hunters is following him and runs off, ending up inside the burial room with Elsa and locking the door behind him. Elsa and Jack are now stuck inside. He tells her that if she helps him to free the monster, he can get her the stone. Sometime later, Elsa manages to find a key inside one of the graves. They then come out of the room, and Elsa gives Jack a small explosive to blow up a wall in one section of the maze. He, in turn, tells Elsa to treat the monster like “an old friend” and address him by his name, Ted.
While Jack takes off to find the cracked section of the wall, Elsa resumes her search for Ted. She runs into Joshua, another hunter, and they are about to have a face-off when Ted attacks Joshua and kills him. Elsa tries to talk to “Ted,” who realizes that she doesn’t mean harm and thus leaves the spot. Meanwhile, Jack is able to blow up the wall, and Ted makes it out of the maze, escaping into the forest. But before he can do so, Elsa manages to pull off the Bloodstone attached to Ted’s back using a hook. When Jack goes to pick it up, its force throws him away. This reveals that Jack isn’t a human but a monster. He, as well as Elsa, are taken captive by Verussa, who intends to find out what kind of monster Jack is and then kill him. His head shall then be placed high up on the walls alongside those of the other monsters killed by the Bloodstone bloodline.
Jack wakes up in a cell and tries to convince Elsa that he has “systems to manage the hurt” he can cause others. They have five more days until the next full moon, when Jack will turn into the monster, and before that, they have to plan an escape. But Elsa reveals that the Bloodstone can transform him into a monster in “5 seconds”. This is when Jack realizes that he and Elsa have been put in the cell together so that after he is forcefully transformed into the monster, Elsa becomes his first kill. He starts to smell Elsa so that his monstrous self can recognize her later on. After a few minutes, Verussa, and the remaining two hunters, along with some TVA guards arrive. Verussa uses Bloodstone to transform Jack into a werewolf, who then breaks free from the cell and attacks the TVA guards one after another, killing them all. Elsa, on the other hand, is busy fighting the two hunters. Verussa uses the Bloodstone to hurt Jack, trying to kill him, but she is interrupted by Elsa, who manages to separate Verussa from the stone. Jack escapes outdoors and into the forest. Elsa grabs hold of the Bloodstone. Verussa is enraged and is about to shoot Elsa when Ted breaks in through the roof and kills Verussa. Elsa points him to the direction where Jack is headed. The film ends with Jack, back in his human form, talking to Ted in a friendly manner somewhere in the forest.
See More: Does ‘Werewolf By Night’ Mark The Arrival Of Horror At The MCU?
‘Werewolf By Night’ Easter Eggs: Explained
Other than some traditional Easter eggs, “Werewolf by Night” features many characters Easter eggs that point towards the show’s supernatural theme. These clarify that monsters and werewolves, as well as monster hunters, were always present but hidden in the MCU for a long time.
Ulysses Bloodstone: In the comics, Ulysses Bloodstone is a caveman who was alive for 10,000 years thanks to the blood gem in his breastbone. For all those years, he sought revenge from Hellfire Helix, AKA Exo-Mind, who used the Bloodgem as a conduit, as well as the other pieces of the Bloodgem, so that nobody could use it for unfair means. (This can also mean that there are more bloodstones in the MCU.) He ultimately got his revenge and died in the 20th century and was survived by his son Cullen and daughter Elsa. “Werewolf by Night” reveals that Ulysses, “the seventh son of the Bloodstones,” was killed on a full-moon night. This suggests that he might have been killed by a werewolf, too, probably Jack’s father, Gregory Russoff. This brings us to our next Easter egg.
Jack, AKA Jack Russell: We do not come to know anything about Jack other than the fact that he turns into a werewolf on every full moon night. According to the comics, Gregory Russoff sent his wife Laura to the US with their children, Jack and Lissa, to protect them. Gregory was killed by a mob. Meanwhile, Laura married Philip Russel and changed her surname from Russoff to Russell. After Laura’s death, it was later revealed that Philip was Gregory’s brother. That Jack, too, had his father Gregory’s werewolf curse passed on, manifested when he was 18 years old. But through practice, he learned to control his powers, something he mentions in the show as well, to Elsa (“systems to manage the hurt”).
The Man Thing: “Werewolf by Night” introduces the Man-Thing to the MCU. In the comics, Theodore “Ted” Sallis was a professor of biochemistry who manufactured the SO-2 Serum that offered immunity from any toxic biochemical. Later on, he would modify the Serum to turn it into a Super-Soldier serum at a secluded facility in the Florida Everglades. After AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics [Iron-Man 3]) tried to get its hands on the Serum by unfair means, Ted injected himself with the only sample of the Serum before his car crashed into a swamp in the Everglades. This turned him into the hideous-looking creature that we see in the show. We can clearly see different kinds of flora growing all over him.
Monsters and Monster Hunters: The beginning of the show depicts pictures of monsters and their hunters. Among these are the monsters: Nosferatu, Wendigo, and Sasquatch. The Nosferatu are a vampire breed and rivals of Dracula. They appeared only once in the “Bloodstone” miniseries (2001). They lived in ancient Atlantis and used the Darkhold as their power source. We have to wait and see if the MCU establishes any connection between this ancient Atlantis and the one we are about to see in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” if at all since the Darkhold has been destroyed in the MCU.
The Wendigo isn’t a monster but the manifestation of a curse by the Elder Gods. The curse transforms a human who eats the flesh of another human, in the Canadian woods, into a huge beast clad in fur with claws and fangs. According to legend, only one or two Wendigos can live at a time as they are doomed to roam the wilderness until the curse falls on another human. One Wendigo even fought with Red-Hulk, who was teased by Jennifer Walters towards the end of Episode 8 of “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.” Moon Knight has also had an encounter with one as well as with Werewolf by Night. In fact, the character of Moon Knight was introduced in a “Werewolf by Night” comic (Issue 32, 1975). Dr. Walter Langkowski was working on the Hulk’s gamma radiation and how he could create a similar being. He turned into a massive creature after being subjected to large amounts of gamma radiation. It was the way he resembled Big Foot that he named himself Sasquatch. Later on, Walter learned to retain his intelligence and personality. We also see a picture of a gathering of hunters where one of them is wearing a knight’s armor and is holding a sword or a blade. This could be a subtle Easter egg addressing Dane Whitman, AKA Black Knight, whom we came across in Eternals, played by Kit Harrington. It is possible that Dane Whitman is, in fact, a monster hunter after wielding the Ebony Blade (it, too, is cursed).
Final Words
“Werewolf by Night” isn’t scary at all, but rather a fresh visual take on the superhero genre. The eerie score and the black and white presentation give the show a classic horror vibe, but all these only underline that the show is “supposed to be” scary rather than being scary for real. Also, “Werewolf by Night” doesn’t have any mid or post-credits scenes to direct us in any direction or show us where the character of Jack Russell is headed. So all we can do is speculate and wait.
“Werewolf by Night” is a 2022 thriller directed by Michael Giacchino.
