Teen Wolf: The Movie kills a franchise, but Wolf Pack revives it

Teen WolfFirst premiered in 2011 Twilight (2008) and The CW’s The Vampire DiariesThe teen fantasy boom reached its peak with the release of (2009). Hollywood got the clear message that young audiences were looking for shows featuring sexy teenage girls, supervillains and forbidden lovers. Teen WolfMTV was thrilled to have this show as a huge success. This series aired six seasons before it ended in 2017. In the five years since the finale, television made for young adults has moved away from vampires and werewolves, but it hasn’t strayed far from the horror-fantasy model the series (and contemporaries like Pretty Little LiarsAnd Scream Queens) popularized. In theory, now is the perfect time for a revival — which is why this week, we’re getting two attempts: The creatively titled Teen Wolf: The MovieA new series is also available. Wolf PackIt is spiritually unrelated.

Jeff Davis created it. Teen Wolf: The MovieAnd Wolf PackParamount Plus premiered the series on January 26, however, other than common elements and entangled ads (including panels shared at SDCC and NYCC earlier in the year), these properties do not have anything to do with each other. Wolf PackPreview for the critics. Fans of the original series may find this lack of context disturbing, but the divorce offers the franchise the opportunity it so desperately requires: an on-ramp and a new start.

Previously, on Teen Wolf… The Movie

Photo: Curtis Bonds Baker/MTV Entertainment

Teen WolfIt began as a television series about Scott (Tyler Posey), an adolescent boy who is bitten by a welwolf and must balance his lacrosse with supernatural dangers. He also falls in love with the werewolf hunter’s daughter. This world quickly expanded. The town of Beacon Hills was revealed to be full of otherworldly creatures — banshees, werecoyotes, kitsune, hellhounds — and the villains became more and more dangerous. Subsequent seasons got darker, more serious, and mythology-driven, though the core was always the relationship between Scott and his human best friend, Stiles (Dylan O’Brien). Scott and Stiles’ bond made the show relatable despite the fact that one was a werewolf. They were there no matter how absurd the plots or disturbing the villain. Teen WolfBack to the real world.

This was especially evident in season 3, arguably the series’ best season, and coincidentally, the season Teen Wolf: The MovieMost of the characters are borrowed from. Season 3’s antagonist, a kitsune-esque “nogitsune” trickster spirit that thrives off of chaos and pain and temporarily possessed Stiles, was the series’ scariest villain and also its most emotionally effective. This makes it logical that Teen Wolf: The Movie would want to revisit the arc to strike a similar human-relationship-to-supernatural-action ratio. There’s just one small problem: O’Brien chose not to return for the film. Stiles was not there. The MovieIt lacks both humor and heart, which made the show addictive.

Teen Wolf, like Scott, becomes too involved in slow-motion action without an emotional anchor. It has more plot and character than it deserves. Teen Wolf: The Movie falters. This is clear in how the film borrows heavily from the action of season 3 — the nogitsune and his shadow henchmen, the oni, were villains in the second part of the season — but reclaims almost none of the heart, sacrificing it to make room for dramatic entrances. But simply getting a beloved character like Peter (Ian Bohen) to walk out of the shadows and light a cigar with a blow torch doesn’t make up for the fact that the film isn’t additive.

By being so nostalgic, it’s unclear who Teen Wolf: The Movieit is worth watching. New viewers would be completely lost without the context of season 3, and it’s not satisfying to this longtime fan hoping to experience the humor and heart of the original series. All the forced actions, this is the most disappointing episode. The MovieDerek (Tyler Hoechlin), and Eli (Vince Mattis), a teenage boy who struggle to harness his werewolf abilities and is insecure about his father, come to a genuine relationship. But that storyline is left underdeveloped as it takes a backseat to a main plot about Allison’s (Crystal Reed) resurrection as her season 1, werewolf-hating self, and Scott’s desperate attempt to remind her of who she had grown into before she died.

Photo: Matt MIller/MTV Entertainment

Superfans will see things they missed from the original: The brilliance of Allison’s BFF turned banshee turned Stiles’ love interest, Lydia (Holland Roden), Derek’s stern dad vibes, Scott’s himbo energy, and, yes, even the action. But they’ll also be left scratching their heads about glaring plot holes. What happened to Monroe and the werewolf hunters, who ended the finale as Scott’s main rivals? Scott is out of touch? This is not an attempt to bow the series despite the superficial callbacks.

It’s all top-notch. Teen Wolf: The MovieKira (Ardencho) is disrespected, who was introduced as Scott’s new love interest in season 3. Season 3’s plot was revived thanks to her character. The nogitsune villain, for example, was born from her mother’s trauma in a Japanese American internment camp during WWII. The film doesn’t even mention this background. In fact, Kira’s name doesn’t even come up. It’s not surprising, considering how her character was casually dropped in season 5 and that Cho was reportedly offered less than her white co stars to star in the movie.

This is a more glaring oversight than the fact that Kira has been replaced with by the film. Hikari Zhang (Amy L. Workman), a new kitsune who is barely introduced as Liam’s girlfriend or friend (their relationship is never defined) and only has a handful of lines. It’s hard not to see her character as an attempt by Davis to justify the film’s use of Japanese folklore, and it’s a huge miscalculation for the film. That is what fans want. Teen WolfCan evolve but The MovieIt feels like you are stuck in the present.

A new generation in Wolf Pack

Photo: Steve Dietl/Paramount Plus

However Teen Wolf: The Movie disappoints, the best thing that may happen to Davis’ original series is the decision to start over again with Wolf PackThe show is actually inspired by a series books written by Edo van Belkom. The show begins with Everett (Armani Jackson), a loner who kicks off the episode mid-panic attack before he — spoiler alert — gets bitten by a mysterious creature while evacuating from a fire. The next thing he knows, he’s in the hospital being treated for a mysterious animal bite and receiving threatening phone calls warning him that people are out to kill him. Blake (Bella Shepard), who is his only allies, was a classmate that he saw also get bit in the evacuation.

Despite confusino, there’s no connection to Teen Wolf — even a pandering one that current cinematic universes might invite — in Wolf Pack. Davis doesn’t stretch to feature overlapping characters. Beacon Hills has no boundaries, at least not in the two first episodes. This new series features a team that reimagines supernatural creatures in an innovative way. It’s a new series. FeelsSimilar to Teen Wolf — the jump scares, the way-too-hot teenagers — but plot-wise, Wolf Pack isn’t tied down by any expectations to connect to the original.

The franchise can adapt to changing times thanks to this freedom. Wolf PackIt is slower and darker than the other. Teen Wolf, a possible reflection of the fact that the show has already been picked up for an entire season on streaming and doesn’t depend on weekly ratings, giving it more time to ease into the story. Scott discovered he was actually a welwolf during the first episode. Teen Wolf. Everett is unable to figure it out by the end of the first hour. Major characters like Kristin (Sarah Michelle Gellar) barely make an appearance in the episodes. This gives the series a sense of foreboding. (Though, if Gellar doesn’t get more to do soon, it’ll be tough to keep the Buffy the Vampire SlayerMany fans return each week.

A streaming program that was created in 2023. Wolf PackThere are many technical differences between Teen WolfIt has changed, but the core of the series’ story is the concept of the “found family”. Scott and Stiles created new families every season by adding new members to the pack and making new friends. Wolf PackThis is the main theme. Both Blake and Everett are disconnected from their parents and at odds with their classmates, but, after they’re bitten, they have an undeniable connection, which allows them to cross paths with werewolf twins Luna (Chloe Rose Robertson) and Harlan (Tyler Lawrence Gray), who were found by their adoptive father, Garrett (Rodrigo Santoro), as babies. A pack is forming, and it’s clear they’ll need each other if they want to survive the season.

After Teen Wolf: The Movie, it’s refreshing to see the focus placed back on the characters and their relationships. The show should continue to emphasize character and relationships over plot. Wolf PackYou might be able to do that The Movie couldn’t: thrive.

Teen Wolf: The MovieAnd Wolf PackParamount Plus has both of them available.