Teen Wolf creator talks movie, Wolf Pack, and casting Sarah Michelle Gellar
Exclusive: Jeff Davis compares his new series Wolf Pack to his old series Teen Wolf – and the two are very different
A new Teen Wolf movie and a new series from one of the producers behind the series, Wolf Pack, are both on the way. Yet, don't be confused, these two projects are, surprisingly, not related.
“I know that everybody gets confused by it, but I always say, 'Nobody thinks Twilight is in the same universe as Interview With The Vampire,'" Jeff Davis tells SFX magazine in the new issue, featuring Teen Wolf on the cover. "There can be two werewolf shows that exist in separate spaces. It’s funny because one of the things we did was consciously try and do things differently with Wolf Pack.
"I said, 'I don’t want to do the same show. I want to do something more adult, a little bit extreme in places. Not necessarily darker, but a little bit more sophisticated in terms of themes.' Teen Wolf was very comic book. It had a real sense of humor… not that Wolf Pack doesn’t have a sense of humor, but it’s not as comedic as Teen Wolf."
Wolf Pack is set to star pop culture icon Sarah Michelle Gellar, something of a casting coup for the series. The Buffy The Vampire Slayer actress hasn’t ventured into supernatural territory – let alone as a regular in live-action television – for quite a while. So even Davis was stunned when she agreed to come on board.
"The conversations were me saying, 'Sarah Michelle Gellar? We are never going to get Sarah Michelle Gellar,'" he recalls. "'She hasn’t done a show like this in years. There is no way she’s going to jump into this again knowing the legacy of Buffy and that she was the star of one of the best genre shows ever.' Then we met and we clicked. She really liked the script. I’m just as surprised as anybody else that she said yes."
Ever since Teen Wolf wrapped its six-season run back in 2017, the show’s fanbase has been howling for a reboot, a revival, a miniseries… quite frankly, anything. That wait will finally end in January when Paramount Plus airs Teen Wolf: The Movie. Teen Wolf creator Davis, who also serves as producer and screenwriter on the film, calls the endeavor "a colossal undertaking. The first cut was three hours long. Part of that is you have so many characters to service. By the end of writing the movie, I kind of realised, 'Oh my god. This is basically season seven all-in-one movie.' We packed a lot into this movie. It was trying to give the fans big moments, tear-jerking moments and funny moments, while giving them throwbacks to what the show was, but also a few new things like Vince Mattis, who plays Eli, Derek Hale’s son."
Wolf Pack and Teen Wolf: The Movie are both on Paramount Plus from January 27. For more on both, pick up the latest issue of SFX Magazine, available on December 28! For even more from SFX, sign up to the newsletter, sending all the latest exclusives straight to your inbox.
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Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ currently based in the Midwest. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.