Werewolf By Night arrives on Disney Plus next month and director Michael Giacchino recently responded to rumors Mahershala Ali’s Blade was originally due to appear in the Marvel special.

Werewolf By Night marks Marvel’s first Halloween special, coming in the form of a black-and-white homage to classic horror cinema. Rumors had suggested that the special was originally set to introduce Mahershala Ali’s Blade to the MCU, with scheduling conflicts forcing a change of plan.

Now Michael Giacchino has responded to the rumors, apparently dismissing the notion Ali’s Blade was ever going to appear in Werewolf By Night.

Michael Giacchino Slays Blade Rumors

During an interview for One Take News, Michael Giacchino was asked about the rumors Mahershala Ali’s Blade originally had a role in Werewolf By Night, to which the director and composer responded that he had always envisioned the Halloween special as more of a standalone project.

Giacchino said Marvel rumors tended to be “insanely inaccurate,” revealing that while Werewolf By Night takes place within the MCU, he wanted to keep the focus on this particular story without feeling the need to include cameos from other Marvel characters.

Addressing the rumors that Mahershala Ali’s Blade nearly appeared in Werewolf By Night, Michael Giacchino revealed:

“You know what, rumours are insanely inaccurate I would say…99.9% of the time. The thing about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is everyone thinks that every single thing is going to be connected. EVERY single thing. And it doesn’t mean that we’re not connected. But, I didn’t feel the need to blatantly say we were. You know, every other show has done that and they’ve done it brilliantly and I thought “you know what?”, when I was a kid, I would pull a comic off the shelf and this particular Werewolf By Night issue had nothing to do with anything else in the Marvel Universe. What’s wrong with that? That’s okay! You know, they can all live together but we don’t need to always show them together. You know, let’s have a moment where we’re dealing with this.”

Giacchino went on to reveal that one of his key influences on Werewolf By Night was The Twilight Zone. He cites the series’ approach to storytelling via one-off anthology pieces as an example of the brand of storytelling that inspired his Marvel project:

“One of the shows that was a huge influence for me growing up was The Twilight Zone and what I loved about it was each one was its own thing and each story was something that you had to think about for days afterwards and I said “Let’s do that! Let’s just worry about this”. You know, in the future, who knows? We’ll see where the characters go, we’ll see where we take them but for now, let’s just worry about this one thing right here.”

It sounds like Werewolf By Night will be standing on its own feet and was never set to feature any appearances from other MCU characters. Marvel’s Moon Knight recently did spectacularly well without any references to other MCU characters, so maybe Werewolf By Night will follow in that series’ footsteps.

Werewolf by Night stars Gael García Bernal, Laura Donnelly, Harriet Sansom Harris, Al Hamacher, Eugenie Bondurant, Kirk Thatcheras Jovan, Jaycob Maya, and Daniel Watts. Michael Giacchino directed the special from a script written by Peter Cameron and Heather Quinn. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige serves as Executive Producer.

Werewolf by Night will be available on Disney Plus on October 7th. Stay tuned for all the latest news on the special and be sure to subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more original video content.

Source: One Take News