Werewolf by Night is the fourth-highest official Rotten Tomatoes audience score in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Current is one of the final projects in Marvel’s Phase 4, which ran from the beginning of 2021 to the end of this year. This Phase has been noted for the surge in television projects accompanying the heroes’ film exploits, thanks to Disney+ introducing a range of MCU series that directly engage with the canon.
Another new direction for Phase 4 is Werewolf by Night, which aired on Disney+ on October 7. This Halloween-themed MCU TV special, the first of several, was helmed by film composer Michael Giacchino. The horror-infused film follows a group of monster hunters as they compete to see who will succeed their leader, who has recently died. Gael Garcia Bernal, Laura Donnelly, and Harriet Sansom Harris star in the special.
The official Rotten Tomatoes score for Werewolf by Night was announced this weekend. In addition to garnering a Certified Fresh 92% from a whooping 73 critics, the audience score is 94%, making this the MCU’s fourth highest-performing production in this area. Spider-Man: No Way Home and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (both scored at 98%) are the only titles rated higher, followed by Spider-Man: Far From Home (ranked at 95%) in 2019.
Werewolf by Night Might Correct the MCU’s Phase 4 Drop
While titles such as the aforementioned Shang-Chi and No Way Home, as well as series like as Hawkeye, Loki, and Ms. Marvel, have received some of the highest Rotten Tomatoes scores of the MCU, Phase 4 has had one of the most unequal success percentages of the whole franchise. For example, the Phase 4 film Eternals has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 43%, making it one of only three MCU titles with a Rotten Tomatoes rating (it joins the generally maligned TV projects Inhumans and Iron Fist). Despite their nominally Fresh ratings, the Phase 4 films Thor: Love and Thunder and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are both in the bottom ten of the whole franchise.
Despite the terrible performance of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Werewolf by Night and many of Disney+’s MCU shows have proven to be Phase 4’s bulwark against negative reviews. However, the highly good response to this new special from reviewers and audiences alike may herald a revival for the franchise on both the small and big screens right at the end of Phase 4. The November release Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is receiving strong early buzz, and the film’s might combined with this special’s strong support could help propel the MCU into a more generally well-received Phase 5 as the franchise begins to coalesce into a more focused overarching story as the franchise approaches the upcoming Avengers projects in 2025.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes