- Werwulf's second trailer arrived on 26 September — on the full moon, like the first trailer on 29 June, as reported.
- Robert Eggers' werewolf horror is set in 13th-century England with dialogue performed entirely in Middle English.
- Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson star; Jarin Blaschke shot it on 35mm film.
- US release is Christmas Day 2026 via Focus Features; the UK follows on 1 January 2027.
Robert Eggers releases his trailers on full moons. That's not a rumour — the first Werwulf trailer dropped on 29 June, the second on 26 September, both on full moons, as widely noted. For a director making a medieval werewolf film, the marketing department has simply decided to let the moon do the scheduling. I respect the commitment enormously.
The campaign so far
The full-moon strategy is only the start. There's an alternate reality game running at DevourethAllMankynde.com — yes, really — going live on each full moon between September and November with a secret reward promised at the end. Footage first shown at Universal's CinemaCon presentation in April was billed as the director's "most terrifying motion picture yet," which, from the man who made The Witch and Nosferatu, is quite a claim to put on a slide (Empire).
The film: 1300, in its own tongue
Werwulf is a period gothic folk-horror set in 13th-century England, and Eggers is going all in: the entire film is performed in Middle English. That choice will either be gloriously immersive or send audiences reaching for subtitles — possibly both in the same screening. The official logline calls it "a harrowing tale of devotion, damnation, and the devil within."
The story follows a town menaced by a beast that threatens a man and his family — and here's the unusual part: none of the characters has a proper name. It's deliberate, pushing the film away from individual backstory toward myth and superstition. Which, if you've seen any Eggers film, is exactly his home turf.
Eggers told Empire: "It's set around 1300, and if you were living in England in 1300, every single part of every of everyday life was through a Catholic lens." He calls the screenplay "the darkest thing I've ever written," and describes the horror as slow-burn — "about the tension and the anticipation and the mystery and the darkness" — adding, memorably: "If you're not smelling all the shit and mud in the street, then you're not experiencing this movie properly."
The familiar faces
The cast is an Eggers reunion. Aaron Taylor-Johnson leads as a cursed farmer fighting an inhuman affliction; Lily-Rose Depp plays his wife, pleading in the trailer: "My husband… he is a good man. For the love, I bear him. Please, make him safe from his cursedness." Willem Dafoe — fourth Eggers film, after The Lighthouse, The Northman and Nosferatu — is the relentless hunter: "Every wolf shall die!" Ralph Ineson rounds out the ensemble. Behind the camera, cinematographer Jarin Blaschke (every Eggers feature to date) shot on 35mm with orthochromatic processing for what the production describes as sickly, lifeless faces, from a script co-written with Sjón, Eggers' collaborator on The Northman (Focus Features).
The trailer itself leans into dread over reveals — a voiceover intoning "Do not dread darkness, embrace it" while Taylor-Johnson trembles, turning his face skyward as the change seems to begin.
Why Christmas?
Because Nosferatu did it first. Eggers' vampire film grossed a reported $180 million worldwide, per box-office trackers (Box Office Mojo), and picked up four Oscar nominations in the craft categories, which is why the studio believes in the Christmas-horror formula. Werwulf opens in the US on 25 December 2026 via Focus Features, with the UK following on 1 January 2027.
Full-moon trailer drops. Dialogue no modern audience speaks. Characters with no names. Eggers is committing to the bit so completely that Werwulf can't be a casual multiplex night out — and that's precisely the point. I'll be there on Christmas Day, watching through my fingers.