Wolf Man: Why Ryan Gosling Is a Producer (And Why He Didn’t Star)

Wolf Man underwent several transformations long before Blake Lovell (Christopher Abbott) was bitten by a feral, forest-dwelling monster. The Universal and Blumhouse horror movie in theaters this weekend is a reboot of 1941’s The Wolf Man, about a man cursed to turn into a man-eating werewolf (Lon Chaney Jr.) when the wolfsbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright. Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man eschews supernatural lycanthropy, full moons, and silver bullets for a rabies-like disease transferred by an inhuman creature stalking the woods surrounding Blake’s childhood home in rural Oregon, where Blake returns with his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth).

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Like its protagonist morphing into something else entirely over the course of the film’s one hour, 43-minute run time, Wolf Man might have been something different. Moviegoers who watch through the end credits may recognize two credits in particular: Jason Blum p.g.a — Blumhouse founder and producer of such horror films as M3GAN, The Black Phone, The Exorcist: Believer, and the Insidious, The Purge, and Halloween franchises — and producer Ryan Gosling, a name not typically associated with monster movie fare.

Per the Producers Guild of America rules, the p.g.a., or the Producers Mark, “Identifies which producers performed a majority of the producing functions on a specific motion picture in a decision-making capacity,” whereas the Produced By credit “applies to individuals primarily responsible for the origination and/or management” of a film, including development, pre-production, production, and post-production & marketing.

The Barbie and Fall Guy star was attached to star in the new Wolfman (one word), which Gosling pitched to Universal after Whannell’s Invisible Man successfully rebooted another one of the studio’s classic monsters in 2020. Orange Is the New Black and Dumb Money writers Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo were hired to write the script based on Gosling’s original pitch, which was described in the press as being set in the modern day and in the vein of the Jake Gyllenhaal-starring thriller Nightcrawler but with a supernatural twist.

Whannell, who co-wrote and co-created the SAW franchise with fellow master of horror James Wan before writing and directing 2010’s Insidious 3, 2018’s Upgrade, and 2020’s The Invisible Man for Blumhouse, was tapped to direct later that year. Deadline reported at the time that Whannell would also write the treatment for Angelo and Schuker Blum’s script, which was being developed as a starring vehicle for Gosling with Blum producing.

The filmmaker reportedly at first demurred when offered Wolfman under his first-look deal with the Universal-based Blumhouse, but he eventually co-wrote the current version with his wife, actress Corbett Tuck, with their script using Blake’s affliction as a metaphor for disease. Whannell and Tuck wrote Wolf Man during the COVID lockdowns of 2020 and infused their script with themes of isolation and parenting, and were inspired in part by a close friend’s battle with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), which left her immobile and unable to speak. (In Wolf Man, Blake’s slow transformation leaves him with an inability to communicate with or understand his wife and daughter.)

In 2021, Whannell exited the project due to scheduling conflicts, so Gosling recruited his Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines director Derek Cianfrance director to step in. Cianfrance was the latest director to be attached to the project that had been in various stages of development since 2014: Gosling’s Wolfman was predated by a version that was to take place in Universal’s Dark Universe, the interconnected cinematic universe that had failed to launch with director Alex Kurtzman’s remake of The Mummy starring Tom Cruise in 2017.

Universal hired Aaron Guzikowski (Prisoners) to write the new Wolfman just four years after 2010’s The Wolfman, a period piece and reboot of the 1941 film starring Benicio del Toro as Lawrence Talbot. By 2016, the studio seemingly shifted gears for its Wolf Man reboot in the Dark Universe from producers Kurtzman (Star Trek) and Chris Morgan (Fast & Furious): Dave Callaham, a writer whose credits include such action-packed films as 2005’s Doom, 2010’s The Expendables, and 2021’s Mortal Kombat and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, was hired to rewrite Guzikowski’s script. (It was also reported that the studio wanted blockbuster star Dwayne Johnson to play the Wolf Man in its more action-oriented, Marvel-style Dark Universe, suggesting something quite different from the tragic body horror it ended up becoming.)

Universal eventually abandoned its interconnected Monsters universe, including plans for Javier Bardem as Frankenstein’s monster and a Johnny Depp-led Invisible Man. In 2023, Gosling and Cianfrance exited Wolf Man, although Gosling remained a producer. Abbott was announced as Gosling’s replacement, and Whannell re-boarded the project initially set for Oct. 25, 2024, before being pushed to Jan. 17, 2025. Whannell is credited as an executive producer along with Beatriz Sequeira (The Invisible Man), Mel Turner (Sweet Tooth), and Ken Kao (producer of Gosling’s The Nice Guys).

“I was working with Ryan Gosling, initially,” Whannell explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “He was attached to star, and we were developing it and developing it. Then, there were scheduling issues, so I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to move on to another project.’ And then it suddenly came back around, which I was happy about, because I was able to continue with the script that I had already written. I was able to just pick it right up.”

Whannell continued, “Ryan, unfortunately, because of his schedule, wasn’t able to [continue], but it was definitely a twistier road than I’ve taken in the past. In the case of Upgrade and Invisible Man, it was A, B, C. It was very linear: write the movie, look for financiers, find the cast, shoot the film. So this was definitely the most winding road to making a film, but I’m so happy that I got to make it.”

Wolf Man is now playing in theaters.