Wolf Man Reboot Adds Ozark Star Julia Garner

The Ozark star joins Christopher Abbott in the Universal Monster revival.

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Last month saw the announcement that Ryan Gosling was no longer set to star in a revival of The Wolf Man and that Christopher Abbott would be taking on the role, with Variety confirming today that Ozark star Julia Garner has joined the picture. The outlet also confirmed her role, sharing that she will play "a mother whose family is being terrorized by a lethal predator." We think it's safe to assume the predator will be Abbott's lycanthrope, though with director Leigh Whannell previously reimagining the source material for his 2020 The Invisible Man, the predator in this instance could be something entirely different. The new Wolf Man is set to hit theaters on October 25th.

Thanks to the critical success of The Invisible Man, Whannell was announced as developing a new Wolf Man back in 2020. Whannell would depart the project and Gosling's former Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines director Derek Cianfrance took over, though this version of the project also failed to gain substantial momentum.

Similarly to how The Invisible Man put a new spin on the classic story, the first teases about the new Wolf Man also implied the project wouldn't be a straightforward monster movie. At the time, the project was teased as following a character that would feel more like the Jake Gyllenhaal-starring Nightcrawler, which focused on a nocturnal and ruthless cameraman who would do anything to catch captivating footage.

It's currently unclear how much of the original premise will be present in the project, but with Whannell returning and Gosling still earning an executive producer credit, it's possible that Gosling and Cianfrance only left the project due to scheduling conflicts as opposed to creative struggles. 

The original The Wolf Man was released in 1941 and cemented itself as being as iconic as Universal Monster predecessors like Dracula, The Mummy, and Frankenstein. Much like those other monster movies, The Wolf Man would go on to inspire countless imitators, with its most recent direct remake happening in 2010 and starring Benicio del Toro. In 2017, the Tom Cruise-starring The Mummy was expected to kick off a "Dark Universe" of reboots, but that film's disappointing reception prevented that franchise from moving forward.

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Stay tuned for updates on Wolf Man before it hits theaters on October 25th.

Are you excited Garner has joined the project? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!  

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