Werewolf By Night has a very surprising link to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The first trailer for Werewolf By Night promised a Disney+ special presentation unlike anything ever seen before in the MCU. That naturally meant there was immediate speculation about whether this would actually be MCU canon, given Marvel Studios is exploring the multiverse in Phases 4-6. Fortunately, there are promising signs Werewolf By Night will indeed fit with the mainstream MCU.
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The most significant evidence is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance by the Man-Thing, guardian of the Nexus of All Realities. The existence of the Nexus of All Realities was confirmed by an Easter egg in Thor: The Dark World, when Erik Selvig wrote about it on a chalkboard, and the face of its guardian could be seen on the Grandmaster's tower in Thor: Ragnarok. Man-Thing can be seen in the Werewolf By Night trailer, even using his famous "burning touch" on anything that has fear, hinting at a narrative connection to the mainstream MCU. Another detail in the trailer, however, potentially links to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
The Werewolf By Night trailer shows a gathering of monster hunters, and will clearly establish many supernatural foes in the MCU. One of the creatures briefly glimpsed is a Nosferatu [via Twitter], an ancient type of vampire that has only appeared in a handful of comics. The visual appearance of Marvel's Nosferatu is a homage to the classic 1922 film of the same name, and in the 2001 Bloodstone series the Nosferatu revealed themselves to be Dracula's ancient rivals. They are Marvel's oldest vampires, created when a group of sorcerers living on ancient Atlantis discovered pages of dark magic left by the evil Elder God Chthon. It's this Atlantean connection that potentially links the two projects in a number of exciting ways.
How Nosferatu Connects To Black Panther 2's Namor
The Nosferatu potentially link directly to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which will introduce Tenoch Huerta as the MCU's version of Namor the Sub-Mariner – traditionally ruler of the now-underwater kingdom of Atlantis. Marvel has moved Atlantis to offshore South America, renaming it Talocan and apparently tying the Atlanteans to Mayan legends. That doesn't necessarily preclude a connection to ancient vampires, however. Vampire legends in Mexico and South America date back to the time of the Mayans, inspired by the region's vampire bats.
The Chthonic origin of the Nosferatu in Marvel Comics is particularly important, because their magic is tied to Chthon – source of Scarlet Witch's Chaos Magic and the Darkhold, the book of dark magic exploited by Wanda Maximoff in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Other shots in the Werewolf By Night trailer show cultists who could potentially be the Darkholders, sworn to Chthon's service. It seems the Elder God, redefined as the "first demon" in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, continues to be important in Phase 4 – even after the destruction of the Darkhold. The presence of Chthon seemingly running through both MCU projects hints at an interesting future for the franchise.