Wolf Pack is a 2023 supernatural teen drama created by Jeff Davis. The series premiered on Paramount+ on January 26, 2023.
Loosely adapted from the 2004 Young Adult novels by Edo Van Belkom, Wolf Pack starts on the day of a forest fire in a town in California. Amidst the chaos, several teenagers find themselves bitten by an unusually large animal. Everett Lang (Armani Jackson), one of the bitten students, finds himself drawn to Blake Navarro (Bella Shepard) and both start to gain supernatural powers. This sparks the attention of the twins, Harlan (Tyler Lawrence Gray) and Luna (Chloe Rose Robertson), who were born werewolves and sense that the other two are turning into werewolves themselves.
With the creature that attacked still at large, the teens must work together to learn to use their newfound skills, but further complicating matters is the arrival of an arson investigator Kristin Ramsay (Sarah Michelle Gellar), who seems to know more than she's letting on.
Despite the shared creator and themes and some initial publicity calling it a spinoff, this series is not related to Teen Wolf; it's more of a Spiritual Successor.
Tropes:
- Abusive Offspring: Exploited by Everett's parents in the finale. His mother calls the police on him, claiming he threatened her and ripped the car keys out of her hand. In reality, he gently took the keys out of her hand and calmly said he was going to use the car.
- Abusive Parents:
- Everett's mother is mostly verbally abusive, though she does slap him in one episode.
- Blake's mother is implied to have been similar. She was cheating on her father, and brought her daughter into the middle of conflicts.
- Adrenaline Makeover: Getting bitten by the werewolf leads to Everett gaining xylophone abs and Blake's acne scars disappearing.
- Advertised Extra: Lanny Joon did a lot of press with Sarah Michelle Gellar, giving the impression that Officer Jang would be a larger role. Not only is he just recurring, he's mainly a Satellite Character there for Ramsey to sound ideas off.
- All Girls Like Ponies: Luna is a Girly Girl who had a horse when she was younger.
- An Arm and a Leg: Connor breaks his own foot (again) to escape from the werewolf when his cast gets caught in a fence's wires.
- And Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar gets the 'And' in the opening credits.
- Animals Hate Her: Luna found this out the hard way as a child when her pet horse reacted to her badly during the full moon, and she accidentally killed the horse.
- Asian Airhead: Supporting character Tia spends the majority of her screen time high and giggling.
- Asshole Victim:
- Officer Miller is a belligerent and violent cop who gets aggressive with Harlan during an interrogation, and then tries to enter his home later - without evidence and assaults him by pressing his face against the wall. It's not particularly sad when the werewolf mauls him.
- Subverted with Phoebe, who doesn't get killed until after being given a Pet the Dog moment.
- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Luna is introduced, and spends the first two episodes, wearing a top that shows off her midriff. She's the more traditionally feminine of the female protagonists.
- The Beautiful Elite: Werewolves automatically become more attractive.
- Bookends: The first time Harlan and Cyrus are in the same scene and the last time Harlan and Cyrus are in the same scene both happen at the police station.
- Chekhov's Gun: Ramsey's white noise machine. It allows the pack to synchronize Harlan's super hearing so that they all share it.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The one blond boy at Tia's party who can't remember his name. He's not only the werewolf but Harlan and Luna's brother too.
- Club Kid: Harlan goes to clubs to blow off steam multiple times throughout the first season - often ending in a hook up of some sort.
- Comforting Comforter: A softer moment for Phoebe is when she drapes a blanket over Tia as she doses on the couch.
- Deadpan Snarker: The whole pack, to an extent, has a tendency to snark at each other, but it's especially prevalent with Blake and Harlan.
- Department of Child Disservices: In the finale, Ramsey calls social services on Blake and Danny, and Danny is immediately put into foster care. Although in this case, Ramsey has ulterior motives for wanting to separate them.
- Don't Split Us Up: Blake fears her and Danny being split up if social services gets involved.
- Eating the Eye Candy: The first three times Cyrus sees Harlan, he takes his time to check Harlan out - all this happens before they even talk.
- Engineered Public Confession: Austin busts Phoebe for calling the cops on Blake by replaying a voice note she sent declaring she was "going to fucking ruin her" and then turning it into a remix to add insult to injury.
- Fair Cop: Ramsey is played by 90s and 2000s hottie Sarah Michelle Gellar, who still looks just as beautiful in her mid-40s. Given that she's actually a werewolf, who become supernaturally more beautiful, that makes her a justified example.
- Fire Means Chaos: The series's inciting incident is a raging forest fire that sends the town into chaos.
- Freudian Excuse: Blake refuses to carry a cell phone because her parents split up after that's how her mother's infidelity was revealed.
- Glowing Eyes: When the werewolves are all connected, their eyes glow yellow/gold, and their irises grow larger.
- Granola Girl: While Luna doesn't appear to be this (but for some of her fashion), Austin makes fun of her for it.
- Guy on Guy Is Hot: There are several gratuitous makeout scenes between Harlan other guys, with Female Gaze shots over the abs to highlight the sexiness of it.
- Hair Color Spoiler: The werewolf in the flashback during the fire that Cyrus's father supposedly died in has long blonde hair. As Ramsey had revealed herself to be more than just an Arson investigator, it's no surprise when she reveals that she's the werewolf's mother.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Luna is blonde haired and the kindest member of the main cast.
- Hairstyle Inertia: A flashback to Harlan's childhood shows him with the same messy fringe he has as a teen.
- Happily Adopted: Luna and Harlan were found in the woods by Garrett and have been raised happily enough by him.
- Hate Sink: Phoebe is something of an Alpha Bitch who won't let Blake use her phone to call her family in the middle of a fire because they fell out, names Blake as the arsonist to the police just to be petty, nearly gets herself killed taking multiple selfies on the edge of a balcony and complains that the word 'pussy' is sexist when she had made objectifying comments about the boys (which she is called out for). This gets subverted when she receives several Pet the Dog moments right before she is killed by the werewolf.
- Healing Factor: Becoming a werewolf grants you this. Everett's anxiety eventually goes away, Blake's acne scars clear up, and the werewolf's bite marks heal. Ramsey even believes that being made a werewolf will heal Danny's autism.
- Healing Hands: Ramsey's werewolf power is this, and she heals the silver-inflicted wound that Baron receives in the finale.
- Hidden Depths: Austin seems like a snarky asshole by default, but reveals a talent for playing the piano.
- Hollywood Autism: Played with. Blake's little brother Danny is an extreme case, where he can't communicate normally, has to watch the news at the right time every morning and can't be trusted not to wander off. Blake however rattles off a bunch of misconceptions to Everett, showing more knowledge than is usual for this trope.
- In Da Club: Harlan and Luna sense Blake and Everett's transformation while out in a nightclub.
- In Name Only: The series is Darker and Edgier, Hotter and Sexier and shares only a few aesthetic similarities with the books.
- Inconvenient Attraction: Luna feels this way about Austin. She tells him that she only likes him when he's not an asshole, which is "less than sometimes."
- Inhumanly Beautiful Race: Becoming a werewolf makes you become this. Everett notices that his body has become more toned. Blake loses the acne scars on her face as well.
- Living Lie Detector: Harlan is able to listen to someone's heartbeat in order to tell whether or not they're lying.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Blake is very tough and forthright, with a tomboyish wardrobe, while Everett is shy and anxious, with a preference for bright colours.
- Missing Mom: Blake and Danny's mother is out of the picture, and Blake refuses to even call her, knowing she won't answer.
- Ramsey herself, as she's revealed to be Harlan, Luna and Baron's mother.
- Moody Trailer Cover Song: The trailer features a dark cover LeAnn Rimes' "Can't Fight the Moonlight" by Hales Corner. It returns in the season 1 finale.
- Morality Pet: Blake dotes on her little brother Danny.
- Mr. Fanservice: Harlan frequently dons tight tank tops, and gets a scene where he provides Workout Fanservice, and is part of two gratuitous Guy on Guy Is Hot sequences.
- Nervous Wreck: Everett is on medication for anxiety, and it especially annoys Harlan when their pack bond means he feels Everett's anxieties too.
- No-Tell Motel: Played with in the cheap hotel that Blake and her family live in after they have to evacuate their home. When asked how she knows about it and it's price by her father, she asks what would he like to hear: that she took some guy there for a night of passion, or that she left her house with her brother on a night that he and their mom got into a particularly nasty argument.
- Only Bad Guys Call Their Lawyers: Discussed. Harlan is against calling for lawyers in case it makes them look suspicious. Detective Ramsey points out that they're not actually being arrested.
- Orphan's Plot Trinket / Tragic Keepsake: Cyrus has a lighter as the only thing left of his deceased father.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Luna's full name is Elizabeth but she only answers to Luna.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: In this series, one can be born a werewolf. Biting other people to turn them into new werewolves is a specific ability that only Baron has. Each one in a pack can sense the others, and the four protagonists have different abilities specific to each person, but they can share the abilities close to the full moon. A werewolf doesn't automatically transform at the full moon, but rather in a fire. A werewolf can return to human form by becoming Only Mostly Dead. Silver is their weakness as well. Ramsey as the mother also has the capability to mark others so to ward off attacks by another werewolf.
- Parents as People:
- Garrett has stores of silver bullets, which he can only have gotten in case he needed to kill his werewolf children, but he's shown sympathetically.
- Blake's father is hopelessly out of his depth in trying to make ends meet and dealing with the fallout of her mother having an affair.
- Phoneaholic Teenager:
- Phoebe spends most of her first scene in episode three taking selfies on the edge of a building, nearly falling off multiple times.
- Inverted with Blake, whom everyone considers weird because she chooses not to carry a phone.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Harlan is an extroverted fitness junkie, who's aloof and abrasive to everyone. Luna is a soft-spoken introvert who prefers drawing and classical music.
- Rewatch Bonus: Ramsey's dislike of Officer Miller's roughness towards Harlan seems like a case of showing her as a benevolent cop. On finding out that he's her son, it becomes a retroactive case of Mama Bear.
- Rich Bitch: Phoebe has her own expensive car and a very prissy attitude towards things.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Conor is a bite victim too who gets killed off very early to demonstrate the ferocity of the werewolf.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Prisha, Garrett's co-worker, is the only other person who knows that the twins are werewolves. They don't know that she knows however.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Harlan is antagonistic, whereas Luna is welcoming. Harlan doesn't want to help Everett and Blake at first, but Luna does. Harlan is extroverted, but Luna is introverted.
- Single-Power Superheroes: Each of the werewolves has their own skill, which at times can be shared with the group. Harlan has hearing, Luna has smell, Blake has speed, Everett has strength. Ramsey has healing and Baron has the ability to turn others into werewolves.
- Skewed Priorities: The bus driver in the first episode won't let the children off the school bus, worried she could lose her job for doing so, when there's a literal forest fire about to tear up the highway.
- Socially Awkward Hero: Everett is a very good, kind-hearted person, who also has severe anxiety.
- Slobs Versus Snobs: The class difference is highlighted between Blake - from a working class family who has to work a late night job at a parking garage and is living out of a motel - and the rich Daddy's Girl Phoebe.
- Spicy Latina: Blake is snarky and sassy, and gets pegged as the tough one of the group.
- Straight Gay: Harlan is a fitness addict and behaves like a typical frat boy who just happens to be into men.
- Supernatural Soap Opera: Just as much time is devoted to the werewolves' personal lives as the supernatural stuff.
- Synchronization: When werewolves form a pack, they form a mental link that allows pack members to share their individual abilities, as demonstrated in episode 3 when the pack shared Harlan's hearing and Luna's smell. They also share experiences with each other such as Everett's anxiety attack in episode 4 and Harlan losing control after snapping at Garrett causing the entire pack to become feral and try to kill Garrett, only to regain control together when Garrett coaxes Harlan back into control by having him remember his name.
- Two-Person Pool Party: Well the fact that it's an actual pool party notwithstanding, when Blake and Everett end up in the pool together at Tia's...
- Voice Clip Song: Phoebe's voicemail threatening to ruin Blake is turned into one when it's revealed at a pool party. The partygoers sing along until they realize that they've teased her enough about it.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Harlan often goes without a shirt, as does Everett once his makeover is complete. Two episodes take place entirely at a pool party, in which most of the male cast are shirtles for the majority of the run time. Everett spends the first ten minutes of the finale completely shirtless too.
- We Used to Be Friends: Blake and Phoebe were previously friends but fell out before the series began.
- Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: Everett's mother has this attitude the day after slapping him. She gives a half-assed apology and says she's over it already.
- Wild Teen Party: The werewolf attacks a pool party, forcing everyone else inside and the party is eventually broken up by the police.
