Ryan Gosling departs Universal’s Wolf Man

A new Wolf Man is coming to town as star Ryan Gosling and director Derek Cianfrance (The Place Beyond the Pines) have departed Universal and Blumhouse’s upcoming horror movie.

The Hollywood Reporter dropped the exclusive yesterday, signaling a huge creative shake-up in the long-gestating project, which was quickly put into active development after the surprise success of the latest iteration of The Invisible Man in early 2020.

Universal and Blumhouse initially wanted filmmaker Leigh Whannell to step right back into the world of Universal’s monsters, and that was the plan until he left the director’s chair back in 2021. At that point, Gosling was locked in as the star of the movie and brought past collaborator Derek Cianfrance with him. Now, they’re both departing the movie, which is going back into Whannell’s hands. Whether they departed the project over creative differences or scheduling issues (Gosling is a really busy man right now) is unclear.

Stepping into the main character we now have Christopher Abbott, who at first glance might look like Kit Harington to many people, but is actually an entirely different actor that’s been making a name for himself starring in solid indies and working with auteurs. This year, you can catch him in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things and the critically panned Apple miniseries The Crowded Room.

The exclusive from THR also confirms that Gosling will receive an executive producer credit and that Whannell has been part of the writing team behind the current script, which is said to now focus on “a man whose family is being terrorized by a lethal predator.” The question now is: Is Abbott playing the Wolf Man at all? An even bigger head-scratcher is the fact that Universal and Blumhouse have now set an October 25, 2024, release date for the monster feature, effectively turning it into a speedrun-like production.