Wolf Pack (TV series)

Wolf Pack is an American supernatural teen drama television series created by Jeff Davis for Paramount+, based on the 2004 book of the same name written by Edo van Belkom. The series premiered on Paramount+ on January 26 and concluded on March 16, 2023. In January 2024, the series was canceled after one season.

Main

 * Armani Jackson as Everett Lang, an anxious high school student who was bitten by a werewolf during a forest fire stampede
 * Bella Shepard as Blake Navarro, a rebellious high school student who was bitten by a werewolf during a forest fire stampede
 * Chloe Rose Robertson as Luna Briggs, a born werewolf, high school senior and Harlan's twin sister
 * Aisling McBee plays a young Luna Briggs
 * Tyler Lawrence Gray as Harlan Briggs, a born werewolf, high school senior and Luna's twin brother
 * Julian Wanderer plays a young Harlan Briggs
 * Rodrigo Santoro as Garrett Briggs, a California Park Ranger and Harlan and Luna's adoptive father
 * Sarah Michelle Gellar as Kristin Ramsey, an arson investigator investigating the cause of the forest fire

Recurring

 * Bailey Stender as Phoebe Caldwell, a high school student who used to be friends with Blake, who survived the forest fire stampede
 * Chase Liefeld as Baron, the werewolf who bit and turned Everett and Blake into werewolves
 * Hollie Bahar as Prisha Ahmad, a park ranger co-worker of Garrett's and the only person who knows the Briggs's twins secret
 * Rainer Dawn as Cody Malcolm, a former love interest of Harlan
 * Lanny Joon as Jason Jang, a police officer who works with Ramsey
 * Rio Mangini as Austin Kirk, a high school student who survived the forest fire stampede
 * Stella Smith as Tia Patterson, a high school student who survived the forest fire stampede
 * Zack Nelson as Cyrus Nix, a high school student whose late father was a firefighter and who was not on the bus during the forest fire stampede, also a love interest of Harlan
 * James Martinez as Roberto Navarro, Blake and Danny's single father
 * Amy Pietz as Kendra Lang, Everett's overly controlling and verbally abusive mother
 * John L. Adams as David Lang, Everett's well-meaning but unassertive father who enables his wife's treatment of their son
 * Sean Philip Glasgow as Connor Ryan, a high school student and friend of Everett who survived the fire
 * Gideon Emery as Malcolm, a firefighter-turned-janitor and Cody's father who works at the local hospital
 * Nevada Jose as Danny Navarro, Roberto's son and Blake's younger brother, who is on the autism spectrum

Development
In September 2021, it was announced that Jeff Davis was developing a series based on Edo van Belkom's Wolf Pack novels for Paramount+.

In addition to Davis, Joe Genier, Mike Elliott and Karen Gorodetzky serve as executive producers for Capital Arts. Jason Ensler, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Christian Taylor also serve as executive producers. The series premiered on January 26 and concluded on March 16, 2023.

During an interview in September 2022, Jeff Davis stated that although Wolf Pack and Teen Wolf use the same Atlanta studio facilities and share part of the backstage crew, as well as both shows involving young werewolves, the two fictional universes are completely separate and the mythology and creatures involved are different.

Despite some preparations having been made for a second season, the series was canceled in January 2024.

Casting
On June 20, 2022, Paramount+ announced that Chloe Rose Robertson, Bella Shepard, Armani Jackson, and Tyler Lawrence Gray had signed on to play the leads of the streamer's upcoming supernatural teen drama series. Sarah Michelle Gellar made a special appearance during the Teen Wolf panel at San Diego Comic-Con on July 21 to announce that she had joined the main cast of the show. On September 14, Rodrigo Santoro was announced to have also joined the main cast.

On October 7, the streamer also announced new recurring cast members for the first season.

Filming
Principal photography on Wolf Pack began on July 21, 2022, and ran through the middle of November 2022. While the show is set in and around Southern California, the producers chose to film in Atlanta, Georgia, mainly due to that state's generous tax credit program for television production. Working in Georgia can offset the cost of production by as much as 30 percent of the total budget.

Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 44% approval rating with an average rating of 4.9/10, based on 27 critic reviews. Most reviews were of the first 2 episodes, which were provided to reviewers ahead of the series' premiere. The website's critics consensus reads, "Genre queen Sarah Michelle Gellar does her best to lead this Wolf Pack, but it isn't enough to salvage a spinoff that doesn't quite sink its teeth deep enough into the source material." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 40 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

In his review for The Guardian, Jack Seale gave 1/5 stars to the first episode of the series, criticizing the wooden acting, nonsensical dialogue, and incomprehensible plot. The review for Variety declared Wolf Pack's "biggest selling point was Sarah Michelle Gellar’s return to a supernatural teen drama —but even her performance is wan and lacks impact".

Audience viewership
On March 1, 2023, TheWrap named Wolf Pack as one of "the most in-demand series", based on data collected by ParrotAnalytics.com. According to Media Play News, the series was the 8th most watched original series across all streaming platforms in the United States during the week of February 5, 2023, the 9th during the week of February 19, the 10th during the week of March 5, the 9th during the week of March 12, and the 10th during the week of March 19.