Forbes

When was the decision made to close the show this season?

Jeff Davis:  Right around Comic Con. It was a discussion with me and MTV. We decided 100 episodes was a good place to finish. It was really nice, because it gave us the chance to announce it in the right venue.

We’ve always gotten a lot of love at Comic Con. We’ve been seven years. We were there before the show even premiered and snuck our way into a room that, another panel had cancelled and a friend of mine said, “Hey, do you want to do a Teen Wolf panel at Comic Con? I think I can get you in.” I said, “Hell yes.” We were able to show the first ten minutes and surprised the ten people who were in the room, but allowed us to have a really nice response from, God, how many were in there, four thousand fans, now. It was the perfect place to announce it.

Since it is the end of the show, is the plan to have the show end with the gang graduating from high school, or will that come sooner? How will high school play into this season?

Jeff Davis: I’ve always shied away from the high school tropes. Other shows have totally embraced it. This is definitely a story that takes place in their senior year, and a little bit after, actually. You’ll have to wait and see.

And ghost riders for the big bad, at least in the first half of season six?

Jeff Davis: Partially because the mythology around it was perfect for what we wanted to do. Ghost riders, the myth of the wild hunt is that if you see them riding the storm above, if they catch your eye, they’ll take you with them. It was perfect for us. It allowed us to do a big story around an actor, who is now a movie star, around his schedule, allowed us to make it very meaningful for all the characters. They just look cool, they’re cowboys.

What’s interesting is these cowboys are not like any of the monsters from before, even the dread doctors. They seem very humanoid. What was it like to design that?

Jeff Davis: It was fun, because I’m a huge western fan. One of my favorite movies of all time is Magnificent Seven. We took inspiration from a lot of different areas, a little bit of The Dark Tower, I would say, Unforgiven, and being able to go to that look to make these ghost riders, these dark cowboys, was really fun. We knew that we wanted their faces to be scary and give an ancient feel to them, as if they’d been around for a very long time.

To be honest, the myth of the wild hunt goes back to Norse mythology. It was taken by the old west, where they made them into cowboys and the inspiration for The Doors song, Riders on the Storm. We had fun designing them.

You mentioned how this storyline allowed you to work around Dylan’s schedule. What was it like when he had to go away for the first half of the season? Did you feel you were missing anything in the group? Obviously, that comes into play, but more in terms of you couldn’t rely on his comedic sensibilities, because he wasn’t there. What was it like to write around that?

Jeff Davis: We’re lucky in that we have a fantastic group of actors who round out the whole cast. It definitely feels like a loss, as we feel a loss with any character who isn’t quite the same part of the show. It was a challenge. It’s been Scott and Stiles for so long. I always joke that they’re the real romance, the bromance, of the show. Even starting to write an episode knowing that Dylan O’Brien wasn’t going to be in it, was pretty difficult, but that’s part of the reason we came up with a story like this.

As it is the last season, our last twenty episodes, we wanted to really honor the characters in a certain way and write a story that got to the heart of what each character meant to each other.

What kind of format are we going to see this season? Is it one giant arc? Is it two very distinct ten episode arcs?

Jeff Davis:  It’s two story lines that are very much connected. That’s all I’ll tease about that.

Speaking of teases, are you in discussion of returns of anyone like Derrick, or Jackson, to the show for the end?

Jeff Davis:  I’ll tell you, I’ve reached out to more than one person. Whether schedules and availability and desire allows for it, we’ll see. There’s one person I’m hopeful to get, I will say.

Is there talk of extending the Teen Wolf franchise at all, either through spin offs, or there was a short lived hope of TV movie, maybe. Is there a future for Teen Wolf, and if there is a future for Teen Wolf, does that feature involve you in any capacity?

Jeff Davis: I would definitely hope that I’d be involved in some capacity. Tyler Posey and I have always joked about how much fun it would be to do a Teen Wolf movie. I could definitely see something like that happening down the road, but right now, there are no plans beyond these hundred episodes.

What can we expect to see from the younger cast, the ones that aren’t seniors this year?

Jeff Davis: They really step up into their own. There’s a good four of them now that create their own pack. They are essentially like the JV team, to the Varsity team. We’re exploring the relationships. We’re exploring the romances. I’ve got to say Dylan Sprayberry, he really surprises us with his acting ability, with how much fun he and Mason are in this season, I’m excited for people to see it.

When you started Teen Wolf, not only was the show not a thing yet, but MTV was not a main player in the dramatic game yet. Your show turned it into that. The ending you have set up for the end of the season, is it the end that you had always envisioned, or did that change over time?

Jeff Davis: That definitely changed over time. I’ve got to tell you it’s an honor to be one of their, I can’t say it’s their longest scripted show. It’s their longest one hour drama. We feel a lot of pride in how we helped rebrand a network as scripted. I’m really interested to see how people respond to Sweet/Vicious, I think that one’s going to be great. I’m a Shannara fan, myself. We have a lot of pride in having helped develop MTV as a scripted network.

I can tell you, quite honestly, I’ve never had a clue when the show was going to end. We write each season finale as a series finale, every timeout. I really thought the show was over in season five and wrote five twenty to be a series end. Then, they surprised me and said “Yeah, we want twenty more.” I was like “Okay.” We came up with some ideas.

I always think that this show is best told as a … In my head, the best ending is always “and the adventure continues …” kind of ending, that you don’t wrap it up in too neat a bow, you always leave threads to have the audience wondering what happens next.

I wanted to ask you about two more things. They’re both some upcoming projects and I’m going to start with the most recent one that was announced, which is War of the Worlds. How did that come to be?

Jeff Davis: I’m friends with Andrew Cochran, who was on the second season of Teen Wolf, who’s a great writer. He told me about War of the Worlds, he was working on with Josh Berry, producer from the firm, whose grandfather actually was Gene Berry, who starred in the original War of the Worlds movie. He started to pitch me the idea and I said “That sounds really interesting. That sounds like a really good take.” Then, they asked me if I wanted to come aboard and help develop it. I said “Yeah, absolutely.”

We brought it to MTV and they liked our take. I think we’ve got something really interesting, because it’s not like Independence Day, where it’s a huge sci-fi massive special effects extravaganza. It’s more POV from the ground up, with survivors desperately trying to figure out how to stop this alien invasion and occupancy. What he pitched to me and what we’ve developed is a very Michael Crichton-type thriller, which I think is a very interesting take on it, a nicely updated version of it. I’m also a huge fan of the Tom Cruise War of the Worlds. I think that’s one of Stephen Spielberg’s most underrated movies.

And you’re filming the pilot of Let the Right One In for TNT right now. How’s that going and what is it about your take that’s going to allow the title to extend beyond more than just a movie or book?

Jeff Davis: Filming is going great. I’m really happy with the cast we’ve assembled. I have to say, especially Ben Wadsworth and Kristine Froseth, the two young leads, are surprising us every day with how talented they are. The take on it is very much inspired by the book. I love the movie, Let the Right One In, the Swedish movie, but it wasn’t until I read the book where I thought, “Okay, I can see how this can be a TV series now, can definitely see it.” It’s the story of [Bram Stoker’s] Renfield.

It’s Dracula’s seduction, the way he brings in Renfield, the caretaker. That’s a very interesting POV, and to tell it from the eyes of kids… it’s a very adult story. It’s quite dark. We’ll see if it gets past the pilot stage. As you know about the TV industry, the pilot is a sales tool, essentially. You’re creating a sales tool for the series. We’ll see how TNT likes the pilot and if we can go forward. They’ll be deciding pretty quickly.

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