With a new Penny Dreadful spinoff series set to premiere in 2020, let’s take a look back at one of the original show’s most interesting characters; the werewolf Ethan Chandler. Played by Josh Hartnett, Ethan was introduced on Penny Dreadful as a charming American sharpshooter who came to Victorian London with his Wild West Show – a traveling show that displayed his amazing gunslinger skills. It was in London where he was recruited by Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) and Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton) into their supernatural missions.
Despite his obvious charms, it seemed there was more to Ethan Chandler than met the eye and clues were peppered throughout the first season of Penny Dreadful as to who he really was. He had a tendency to avoid being around people when there was a full moon and was shown waking up in random locations with claw marks on himself and little memory of the night before. Then there was that time Ethan was able to ward off a pack of wolves with no fear whatsoever.
All of those clues seemed to suggest Ethan was a werewolf and those suspicions were confirmed in the Penny Dreadful season 1 finale. After Brona (Billie Piper) died Ethan was drowning his sorrows at the Mariner’s Inn when two bounty hunters sent by his father approached him. He transformed into a werewolf and ended up mauling and killing one of the hunters and a few pub patrons too in a bloodbath that came to be known as the Mariner’s Inn Massacre.
Still, there was plenty of evidence to suggest the Penny Dreadful werewolf mystery ran a little deeper than just Ethan going on a murderous rampage every full moon. It soon transpired Ethan wasn’t a run-of-the-mill lycanthrope in season 3 when he was extradited to America and Penny Dreadful fans learned a bit more of his backstory. It was revealed that prior to his arrival in London, Ethan’s father had forced him to join the U.S. Army which saw him slaughter an innocent tribe of Apaches.
Wracked with guilt, Ethan surrendered himself to the Apaches but Kaetenay (Wes Studi) enlisted him to fight the same army he once served in. This resulted in Ethan inadvertently leading the remaining Apache tribe to his father’s ranch where they killed his mother, sister, and brother – which goes some way to explain Ethan’s complicated relationship with both his surrogate father Kaetenay and biological father Jared Talbot (Brian Cox).
In the season three finale fans saw Ethan embrace his Penny Dreadful werewolf destiny as the ‘Lupus Dei’ or ‘Wolf of God’ – the only one who could thwart Dracula’s evil plans. Interestingly, it was also revealed that Kaetenay was the one that turned Ethan into a werewolf. Unfortunately, Penny Dreadful’s third season turned out to be its last and much of Ethan’s werewolf history – like how and when Kaetenay turned him – was regrettably left unaddressed.
Next: Max Landis’ American Werewolf In London Remake Is Probably Not Happening
