The Wolf Man is in the pantheon of horror movie monsters, alongside Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Well he’s getting a refresh in 2025, with a brand new Wolf Man from director Leigh Whannell and stars Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner.
Whannell may not be immediately known to all movie fans, but he has experience in crafting a new interpretation of a horror classic. In 2020 he directed The Invisible Man with Elisabeth Moss, which was excellent. That has me intrigued to see what Whannell can do with Wolf Man.
If you’re the same way, read on for everything you need to know about Wolf Man, including when it’s releasing and a look at the official Wolf Man trailer.
Wolf Man release date
Wolf Man arrives as one of the early 2025 new movie entries, premiering January 17 exclusively in US and UK movie theaters, including on IMAX screens.
Wolf Man cast
Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner star in Wolf Man as husband and wife Blake and Charlotte, who try to help their marriage by visiting his family home in rural Oregon.
Abbott has starred in Poor Things, The Crowded Room, Catch-22 (for which he received a Golden Globe nomination), First Man, It Comes at Night and Girls.
Garner is a three-time Emmy Winner for her work in Ozark, but she has also starred in The Americans, The Assistant, Inventing Anna and, most recently, Apartment 7A.
They are joined in the cast by Matilda Firth (Hullraisers, Coma) as their daughter Ginger, as well as Sam Jaeger (The Handmaid’s Tale), Ben Prendergast (The Sojourn Audio Drama) and Benedict Hardie (The Invisible Man).
Wolf Man plot
Whannell co-wrote the script for Wolf Man along with Corbett Tuck, Lauren Schuker Blum & Rebecca Angelo. Here is the official synopsis:
“From Blumhouse and visionary writer-director Leigh Whannell, the creators of the chilling modern monster tale The Invisible Man, comes a terrifying new lupine nightmare: Wolf Man.
“Golden Globe nominee Christopher Abbott stars as Blake, a San Francisco husband and father, who inherits his remote childhood home in rural Oregon after his own father vanishes and is presumed dead. With his marriage to his high-powered wife, Charlotte (Emmy winner Julia Garner), fraying, Blake persuades Charlotte to take a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter, Ginger (Matlida Firth).
"But as the family approaches the farmhouse in the dead of night, they’re attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside the home as the creature prowls the perimeter. As the night stretches on, however, Blake begins to behave strangely, transforming into something unrecognizable, and Charlotte will be forced to decide whether the terror within their house is more lethal than the danger without.”
Wolf Man trailer
Watch the trailer for Wolf Man right here
A teaser trailer for the horror movie was also previously released, which you can watch below:
Leigh Whannell movies
As already mentioned, this is the second classic movie monsters that Whannell has put his own spin on, but the actor turned director has a few other movies that he has stepped behind the camera on. In addition to The Invisible Man (2020), Whannell directed Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) and Upgrade (2018).
Wolf Man behind the scenes
The studios behind Wolf Man are Universal Pictures, which has long been the home of many of horror’s most iconic monsters, and Blumhouse, the production company that has become synonymous with some of the biggest and most acclaimed horror movies in recent years, led by Jason Blum, who is serving as producer on Wolf Man. Notable executive producers on the movie include Whannell and Ryan Gosling; Ken Kao, Beatriz Sequeira and Melanie Turner round out the executive producers.
The writing team that worked alongside Whannel in the movie includes Corbett Tuck, a former actress who is married to Whannell and earning her first screenwriting credit with Wolf Man, and the writing duo of Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Shcuker Blum, who previously wrote multiple episodes of Orange Is the New Black and Dumb Money.
