Teen Wolf is an American supernatural-fantasy horror-drama television series that was developed by Jeff Davis (known for his role as showrunner of the CBS television series Criminal Minds) for MTV Network. It is very loosely based on the 1985 film starring Michael J. Fox as well as the 1986 television series of the same name.
The series follows the teenage Scott McCall (Tyler Posey), who, when accompanying his best friend Stiles Stilinski (Dylan O'Brien) into the woods of their hometown one night, was bitten by a mysterious and ferocious beast. He soon learned that the beast was an Alpha Werewolf and that he himself has now been turned into a Beta Werewolf, forcing him to learn how to control his new powers and urges with the help of Stiles and Derek Hale (Tyler Hoechlin), a mysterious and brooding Beta Werewolf who just returned to Beacon Hills upon hearing of the death of his sister, Laura. All the while, Scott struggles to keep his supernatural identity a secret from his mother, Melissa McCall (Melissa Ponzio), and his new girlfriend, Allison Argent (Crystal Reed), who is unknowingly a member of an ancient family of Werewolf Hunters. Scott's transformation into a Werewolf then becomes the catalyst for an onslaught of supernatural disaster to occur in the town, caused by fellow Werewolves, Kanimas, Druids, assassins, Werejaguars, Berserkers, Dread Doctors, and Chimeras, to name a few.
The first season aired on June 5, 2011 after that year's MTV Movie Awards, and it has since spanned six seasons and one hundred episodes. It was renewed for its sixth season of twenty episodes on July 9, 2015, and several weeks later at San Diego Comic Con, the cast announced that Season 6 would be its final season. The second half of the final season is slated to air in June 2017.
Main Cast and Characters
- Tyler Posey as Scott McCall (100/100 episodes, Seasons 1-6)
- Crystal Reed as Allison Argent (47/100 episodes, Seasons 1-3) and Marie-Jeanne Valet (special guest star, 1/100 episodes, Season 5B)
- Dylan O'Brien as Stiles Stilinski (91/100 episodes, Seasons 1-6)
- Tyler Hoechlin as Derek Hale (61/100 episodes, Seasons 1-4)
- Holland Roden as Lydia Martin (95/100 episodes, Seasons 1-6)
- Colton Haynes as Jackson Whittemore (26/100 episodes, Seasons 1-2)
- Shelley Hennig as Malia Tate (55/100 episodes, recurring in Season 3B, main in Seasons 4-6)
- Arden Cho as Kira Yukimura (45/100 episodes, recurring in Season 3B, main in Seasons 4-5)
- Dylan Sprayberry as Liam Dunbar (49/100 episodes, recurring in Season 4, main in Seasons 5-6)
- Linden Ashby as Noah Stilinski (88/100 episodes, recurring in Seasons 1–5, main in Season 6)
- JR Bourne as Chris Argent (74/100 episodes, recurring in Seasons 1–5, main in Season 6)
- Melissa Ponzio as Melissa McCall (74/100 episodes, recurring in Seasons 1–5, main in Season 6)
Production
MTV Network first announced their plans to adapt the 1985 film Teen Wolf into a television series in June 2009, stating that they wanted to create a new series that focused more on romance, horror, and the mythology of werewolves. After Jeff Davis, creator of the CBS crime thriller Criminal Minds, was brought on board, he made it his intention to create a television show that was "sexier and edgier" than the film, with a theme more akin to the 1987 vampire horror film Lost Boys (i.e. dark themes with biting comedic undertones) and inspired by Guillermo Del Toro's recently released film Pan's Labyrinth.
Once the series was given the green-light, Davis hired Russell Mulcahy, an Australian director with an expertise for the horror genre, to be their in-house director and executive producer. The casting announcements were soon made in December 2010, revealing that Tyler Posey (best known for Maid in Manhattan) would be playing the lead character Scott McCall, while brand-new actor Dylan O'Brien would be playing the role of his best friend Stiles Stilinski. Seasoned character actors Crystal Reed, Tyler Hoechlin, Holland Roden, and Colton Haynes were then cast as Allison Argent, Derek Hale, Lydia Martin, and Jackson Whittemore, respectively.
Season 1's production began in October 2010, when they began filming the season's twelve episodes in Atlanta, Georgia. The second season had the same filming location and number of episodes, but was joined by composer Dino Meneghin, who wrote the theme music for the opening credits as well as the majority of the series' score. In Season 3, it was revealed that not only had the series been given permission for a super-sized season of twenty-four episodes, broken down into two twelve-episodes story-arcs, but the series had also moved their filming locations to Los Angeles, California, after getting approval to take advantage of the local tax credit. As a result, the series saw a stronger and more visually-stunning style of filming, allowing the series' theme to become darker and psychologically-thrilling.
Critical Reception
The first season's reviews were seen as generally positive by professional critics, who were surprised by the cinematic quality not typically found on MTV, and it was given a 61 out of 100 by Metacritic, making it the second-highest rated MTV scripted series after Awkward. The second and third seasons each saw ratings and reviews even higher than the seasons that preceded them, with the former getting positive feedback from 80% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes and the latter receiving 100% positive feedback.
Awards
TBA
Trivia
- Scott McCall is the only character in the series to appear in every single episode of Teen Wolf thus far.
- Allison Argent is the first and only main character to permanently die on the series.
- Scott McCall, Stiles Stilinski, and Lydia Martin are the only original main characters to appear in all six seasons of Teen Wolf.