This year at New York Comic Con the Hofstra Chronicle got a chance to take part in conversation with the creator and some of the cast of MTV’s “Teen Wolf.” Check out what creator Jeff Davis had to say about this season being the last and final season of “Teen Wolf.”
Hofstra Chronicle: Let’s talk hypothetical. Does “Teen Wolf” have franchise power or do you think the brand is untouchable?
Jeff Davis: You mean like a spin off?
HC: Pretty much, yes.
JD: We’ve talked about a potential spin off a long time ago. At a certain time, I wanted to spin Kiera off into her own show, which I thought would have been awesome. And we did have one that I was going to call “Echo House” which takes place in Eichen House and would have been about Doctor Deaton who would be the head of Eichen House who is helping supernatural teens see their growing fate. But this is it for now. There are no plans to spin “Teen Wolf” off.
HC: On a scale from one to ten, how many tears are in the finale? Are you going to make us cry a lot?
JD: I hope so. We kind of have two finales though because there are still split stories. [Seasons 6a and 6b] They are each connected but they each have different themes. That’s all I’m going to say.
HC: Are we going to get to see some of the original cast members? For example is Tyler Hoechlin going to be coming back? Or are we going to see the character Kiera since she was left in the desert?
JD: You know, we’d love to have them and we talk about this, but do we want to have the last few episodes or something just be series cameos? We definitely want to stay away from that. But if have meaningful storylines then we’re definitely open to bringing people back. We were trying to bring some people back before and it ended up being a nightmare of negotiations. So I don’t know if I’m willing to go into doing that again. But there’s one or two people who might come back that could surprise you. No plans yet to bring Hoechlin back, I know he’s busy soaring across Metropolis. [Tyler Hoechlin is now playing Superman on the CW’s “Supergirl.”]
HC: How does it feel to be here for your last “Teen Wolf” part of Comic-Con?
JD: It’s nice. We love Comic-Con. We always get such a good response and we always get so much love here. Sometimes you’re in a bubble when you’re doing a TV show. It’s not like the internet, you don’t get that immediate response. You can look on Twitter during episodes, but that can be hazardous. But it’s really nice to come here and it’s a little bittersweet for us because we’re sort of saying goodbye. These are people we’ve worked with for six years, people we love, and it’s hard to do that. I’m still going to be working on this show until March so it’s a long goodbye.
HC: Are there any creatures that have hit the writer’s room floor over the years?
JD: Oh you mean like the editing room floor and cut out? A couple. Most of the way the mythical creatures come up is that they seem to find their way to the writers by almost accident. I knew that while we were doing the pilot of “Teen Wolf,” I knew that I wanted the Kanima to be in the second season. And I knew that in the third season I wanted it have something to do with human sacrifices. So not really. Most of the mythological creatures come from shapeshifting lore. God, I wish I could name one but I can’t.
HC: Do you have plans for your next project?
JD: The new project is currently “Let The Right One In” on TNT. We are shooting a new pilot up in Vancouver and we are about to announce a couple more cast members. We’ve already announced Kristine Froseth, and Euros Lyn who directed Happy Valley, Broadchurch and Doctor Who, is directing the pilot. So I’m hard at work on that while I’m also in the writer’s room, in the editing room and on set for this last season of “Teen Wolf.” It’s just strange process and very busy.
HC: What is the legacy that “Teen Wolf” is leaving? How do you want current fans to talk about this once it’s over?
JD: I would love for people to say that this was one of their favorite shows. I have a lot of favorite shows from my teen years and college years and I’d love for people to find it who have never even heard of it even after the show is done. I’d love for its legacy to be that people loved it and one of the nice things to hear is, I hear this from a lot of friends actually, that they met their best friend because of the show. That’s very gratifying.
HC: What’s your favorite episode you’ve done?
JD: I like a lot of them. I’m very proud of the episodes we’ve done. I have a number of favorites. I will say one of my favorites is actually the episode, “The Divine Move.” I’ve put a lot of effort into the finale and one of my favorites is “Lunar Eclipse.” Those are episode that are very hard to write and finales are always very hard to write.
HC: Can you tell us more about Theo and the doctors?
JD: Theo is back. The Dread Doctors we only see in one episode. Their storyline is done. We loved Cody Christian so much we had to have him back. He’s such a pro on set and he’s such a nice guy in real life. So you’re going to see him on sort of a possible redemption. But Theo has a lot to learn. He’s going to get kicked around the block, deservedly so.
HC: What are all of the factors you think of when killing off a character?
JD: The first is that I’m making an actor unemployed. So that’s a serious consideration. But it also has to do with have we done enough with this character? Do we need to move on? Is the impact the character is having on the story with their death really significant? How can we make it a good death? I don’t like characters that just die. We want them to be good deaths. We want them to be heroic or meaningful or devastating. These days many shows just seem to kill off characters because it’s for ratings or people talk about it. I still want certain characters.
HC: Do you think about the backlash that you’re going to get? How do you deal with that?
JD: There’s backlash to everything. And you can’t do anything always right. We are very considerate about backlash against gay characters. As a gay man myself if killing a gay character is meaningful to the story, then absolutely. But if it’s just to kill a character then we put in a lot of consideration. Backlash we don’t really worry about, you can’t. Every show has backlash. Every show does something wrong. I mean how much backlash is there in “Game of Thrones,” right? If I was in the writer’s room for “Game of Thrones” and they pitched the Red Wedding I would’ve been like, “You can’t do that! There’s no way you’re going to stab a pregnant woman! How the hell are you going to get away with that?” They did and it was one of the most memorable episodes of TV I’ve ever seen. So I would be like, “I’m out of here.”
HC: Why do you think the feel of “Remember Me” is important to this final season?
JD: Well it has to do with the mythology, the ghost riders and it was this whole mythology that came from this feature film script I wrote. Not a great script, but it was about the idea of memory loss and knowing that this is going to be the final season we start to think, well what are all the things that we remember about previous season that we love most?
The first half of the final season of “Teen Wolf” premieres Tuesday Nov. 15.
