One pack reunited and another came together for the first time. The Teen Wolf: The Movie & Wolf Pack double panel at the 2022 New York Comic Con provided footage and other details about the upcoming film and spinoff series, which will both premiere on Paramount Plus on Jan. 26, 2023.
In attendance at the panel was showrunner Jeff Davis, returning cast members Tyler Posey, Crystal Reed, Holland Roden, Colton Haynes, Shelley Hennig, Dylan Sprayberry, and Khylin Rhambo as well as new cast members Vince Mattis and Amy Workman.
Not every cast member from the beloved MTV series is returning for the film, with Dylan O’Brien and Arden Cho notably absent, but creator Davis said the one character he insisted on revisiting was Allison, played by Reed. “I’d always said that if we were gonna do a movie we would have to bring Crystal back,” he said.
The movie takes place 15 years after the end of the show. “Scott McCall is not a teen wolf anymore,” said Posey. “He’s a 30-year-old wolf.” That means he’ll be moodier and broodier than ever before. “Beacon Hills carries a lot of weight for Scott. Emotionally physically. He’s constantly on edge trying to save the world, trying to be the true Alpha.” In that time jump, however, he took a break from trying to be the hero and lost himself. “It’s the first time we’ve seen him [try to be a normal human] since the pilot,” said Posey, and he’s “dealing with depression, loneliness, and anxiety” for the first time.
He’s not the only character who has changed significantly in that time jump. Panel attendees were treated to an early look at a scene from the film. The scene was supposed to be introduced by Tyler Hoechlin, who unfortunately got stuck in traffic en route to New York’s Javits Center. It showed his character “in a whole new light,” according to Davis. That new light is fatherhood and mentorship to Eli, Mattis’ character who is “bringing the teen back to Teen Wolf,” according to him. Check it out below:
The cast talked more about how they’ve grown since the show ended and what it was like to come back. Workman gushed over being accepted into the group and also dropped the tidbit that while she wasn’t a fan, she did study Teen Wolf in acting class.
The love fest was then cut short to accommodate Davis’ second lupine project, Wolf Pack. The new series stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Rodrigo Santoro, Armani Jackson, Bella Shepard, Chloe Rose Robertson, and Tyler Lawrence Gray, all of whom were in attendance at the panel. It wouldn’t be a Teen Wolf property without at least one Tyler.
Based on what little we know, Wolf Pack is reminiscent of Fear The Walking Dead’s relationship to The Walking Dead in the early years. It’s a spinoff in the sense that the two shows are set in the same world but are tonally and thematically different. Wolf Pack is about four teenagers who come together after a California wildfire seemingly triggers a werewolf attack. Since details surrounding the series is still pretty top secret, they started off by debuting a teaser trailer:
It felt like the panel was dropping bread crumbs about their characters and the storyline, which is maybe apropos for these characters who find themselves lost in the woods both metaphorically and physically. Geller plays Krisin Ramsey, an arson investigator with supernatural knowledge. Santoro plays a park ranger named Garrett Briggs, who is “constantly in conflict with the responsibilities of fatherhood,” and would do anything for his kids, who in the actor’s own words have “a very special connection to nature.” Those kids are Luna and Harlan, played by newcomers Robertson and Gray. The other two kids, Everett and Blake, are played by Jackson and Shepard.
The words the young cast used to describe their characters include “anxious,” “lonely,” “not really happy” and “in denial.” This sense of isolation and frank exploration of mental health is what compelled Geller to sign onto another project about monsters years after Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, after drawing parallels between how these characters experience the world and how we’ve lost a sense of connection in the digital and pandemic era. “Utilizing the supernatural is how we explain the things we cannot really understand,” she said. “The stories that we can’t really grasp, or the ones that would be too depressing in real life and too upsetting. We use those to scare ourselves into understanding.” In Wolf Pack, that scary thing is not having the support of a pack.
Despite being isolated and even at odds on the show, however, the cast talked about bonding before filming even started — something that Davis said happened on Teen Wolf as well with Posey and O’Brien. Davis didn’t share any other details about how the two shows may or may not be connected. Perhaps that leaves more to be revealed on Jan. 26 when Teen Wolf: The Movie and Wolf Pack hit streaming.