Werewolf by Night's Special Presentation Intro Is A "Love Letter" to Nostalgia Television

This has been a great week to be a Marvel fan with the release of the company's first "special presentation," Werewolf by Night, as well as the season finale of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law. We've been learning a lot about how these two projects came to be, and like all of Marvel Studios' movies and shows, Kevin Feige had a lot of say in how they unfolded. During a recent chat with Marvel.com, Feige and director Michael Giacchino talked about how Werewolf by Night was a "love letter" to nostalgia television. 

According to the interview, the idea of making "holiday specials" has been in the works since the debut of Disney+. "We wanted to tap into the nostalgia we had as kids when the weekly scheduled entertainment would be interrupted for a show like It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! or Frosty the Snowman or Rudolph," Feige explained. 

"When Kevin and I were talking about this, both of us were massive fans of when you were a kid, and one of those special logos came up, and you could not wait [to watch]," Giacchino added. "If you were in the other room, and you heard that on television, you ran to the TV room."

Was Man-Thing Practical or CGI in Werewolf by Night? 

Giacchino recently had a chat with ComicBook.com's Phase Zero podcast and shared some stories about the special presentation. Giacchino discussed how they made a life-size version of Man-Thing AKA Ted during the production. While some of Ted was CGI in the final product, Giacchino did not want the actors playing against blank blue walls and tennis balls, so he pushed for a full-scale model of the "monster" to have on set. 

"When it started out, I was like, 'Werewolf's gotta be practical, let's build a Man-Thing. Let's see how far we can get with that.' The folks with K&B craft studio, they did the most incredible job," he shared. "They built a life-size Man-Thing. It was completely animatronic and its eyes glowed red. It was crazy and the hands were all motorized. So, yeah it was great. Now, it was mostly on-set so there would be something for the actors to work with."

Check out our full interview with Giacchino on Phase Zero, which is available on YouTube and all major podcast platforms.

Werewolf by Night is now streaming on Disney+.