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Wolf Man Director Leigh Whannell Already Has Idea for a Third Universal Monster Movie — What is It?
The Saw alum's werewolf reimagining is slated for a wide theatrical bow on January 17, 2025.
With his Wolf Man reimagining just a month away from hitting theaters nationwide, writer-director-producer Leigh Whannell is already setting his monstrous sights on the future of Universal's creature-based library.
Speaking with Empire for the magazine's 2025 preview issue (now on sale right here), the Saw franchise co-creator confessed that he'd like to make at least one more monster movie for Universal and Blumhouse, which also entrusted him to modernize The Invisible Man to great success back in 2020.
"My own weird filmmaker OCD is almost like, 'Well I've made two, I have to do three.' It has to be three," Whannell said. "But that's got more to do with my own neuroses than me actually wanting to do it. In my general life, I'm a pretty strange guy with my habits. I have to leave when it's an even number, like, 8:20, not 8:19, which is crazy. I'm probably revealing to you how crazy I am. So on that side of my brain, I gotta do a third one to complete the trilogy."
Leigh Whanell shares the other classic Universal Monster he'd like to tackle next
Neuroses or not, the horror maven already knows which monster he'd tackle next if given the chance: Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. "As a kid, the idea that they were both the same person was always super interesting to me," he revealed.
With that said, Whannell has yet to receive any kind of formalized offer from the studio powers that be. "That's up to Universal," he clarified. "If they said, 'We want you to be the monster guy,' that would be flattering to me. Like, 'Wow, they're entrusting me with this thing that's so important to them.' But I'm not gunning for that role."
What is Wolf Man about?
Billed as a brand-new take on the age-old werewolf genre, Wolf Man stars Christopher Abbott (Poor Things) as Blake, a young family man who finds himself slowly transforming into a nocturnal beast while visiting Oregon with his wife Charlotte (Ozark's Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Coma's Matilda Firth). Wanting to separate his lupine transformation from previous depictions, Whannell drew inspiration from David Cronenberg's body horror classic The Fly and real-world degenerative diseases like ALS and Alzheimer's.
"I'm trying to capture the feeling of what it's like when someone you love is not there anymore, or the person they used to be is gone," he told Empire. "And that's such a huge, difficult thing to deal with for a family, if you've known someone for many years."
When does Wolf Man open in theaters?
Wolf Man will claw its way into theaters everywhere Friday, January 17, 2025.
In addition to writing and directing, Whannell serves as an executive producer on the movie alongside Beatriz Sequeira, Mel Turner, and Ken Kao. Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling, who was originally attached to star, is a producer with Blumhouse founder and CEO Jason Blum.
