Howl to the yeah! “It doesn’t surprise me,” says Tyler Posey, who plays leading lycan Scott McCall, of Teen Wolf‘s big win in our Fan Favorites cover contest. “Our fans are the most dedicated people I’ve ever met.”
And he’s met a lot of them. Since the show’s premiere in 2011, Posey and the Teen Wolf pack have been actively engaging followers on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. And while social-media back-and-forth can be overwhelming for some showrunners, executive producer Jeff Davis sees the value in interacting with even the most ferocious Wolf viewers. “I love talking about the show,” he explains. “You get to see up close and personal how people react to it, which is rare for writers.”
Especially since that reaction could easily have been meh. How hot could anything based on a campy 1985 Michael J. Fox big-screen comedy really be? “I completely agree,” says Posey. “There’s no way anyone would have expected what we created [to be good].” Or bring in big numbers. But the first half of Season 3 was Wolf‘s highest-rated, most-watched batch of episodes to date, drawing an average of 2.8 million viewers per week and helping MTV move beyond Snooki and that bevy of teen moms. “Our show is well-done, smart and real,” Posey adds. “As real as you can be with teen werewolves, right?”
It helps that the drama — which has already been renewed for a fourth season and is getting an after-show in January called Wolf Watch — is about more than just furry teen beasts. Davis has filled the fictional town of Beacon Hills with lizard monsters, disfigured Druid maniacs, banshees and, of course, supernaturally sexy high schoolers. Yet at its heart, the show is about human relationships. Romances straight and gay, bromances, friendships — even parent-child dynamics — are in the mix, seasoned with humor, horror and the kind of ensemble chemistry that comes once in a full moon.
“It was my way to do a TV version of The Lost Boys, a movie I loved as a kid, and to get some of the fun Buffy had back onto television,” Davis explains. “I wanted to do a show that didn’t take itself too seriously, that had plenty of action and a comedic feel.” In other words, Wolf is a horse of a different color.
“We all realized it was special when we read the pilot script,” says Tyler Hoechlin (recently ousted Alpha Derek Hale), adding that it was Davis’s fang-sharp writing and the early critical raves that first clued the cast in to what was coming. “We were like, ‘OK, we’re getting good feedback, so hopefully the fan base will come next.’ But we did not expect the fan base to be what it is. It’s really incredible!”
Source: TV Guide