Sarah Michelle Gellar Says Wolf Pack Goes Beyond Monster Metaphors
After 26 years away from the supernatural monsters of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Sarah Michelle Gellar is back in the pack with "Wolf Pack." The Paramount+ series, created by Jeff Davis ("Teen Wolf"), is based on the book of the same name by Edo van Belkom. When a fire causes animals to flee the forest, and some teens are injured, they discover that werewolves are real and living among them. Some of those attacked have become wolves as well. The series also stars Armani Jackson, Bella Shepard, Chloe Rose Robertson, Tyler Lawrence Gray, and Rodrigo Santoro.
The draw for many fans, however, is Gellar's return. After all, she did star as Buffy, a groundbreaking show for the time about a young woman who was far more than she appeared to be — a vampire slayer who not only fought monsters but had a bunch of them as friends.
It may be flawed and of its time, but one of the things that "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" did so well was to use monsters like vampires, werewolves, and demons to represent the issues we deal with in the world today. It's something fairytales have been doing forever. Fighting a dragon can symbolize overcoming a personal demon. Vampires can represent being seduced into bad situations by something beautiful. Werewolves have often been used as a symbol for unexpected changes and inner demons, as well as the cyclical nature of menstruation and life itself. All monsters can be a metaphor for something you're trying to overcome in your life.
Gellar spoke to The Hollywood Reporter in March about "Wolf Pack" and its focus on mental health. She also talked about how this series, in particular, uses the monsters as metaphors, specifically for the isolation we've all experienced since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
'One of my favorite things about Buffy was the utilization of the monsters being metaphors'
Sarah Michelle Gellar said she was drawn to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" because of its focus on mental health. She told THR:
"I've always said that one of my favorite things about 'Buffy' was the utilization of the monsters being metaphors for the horrors of high school, of adolescence. By the way, I just said to my daughter the other day, 'Seventh grade sucks, it just really does.' I said, 'I'll tell you right now, I've been alive a long time and I've had a lot of bad in my life. I've lost a lot of people. I still think the worst year of my life is probably seventh grade.' So that says something, right?"
Well, that is intense and very true for a whole lot of us. Gellar continued, "Instead of using the monsters for adolescents, we were using the monsters for the modern-day pains that we have, which is the anxiety of life and how stressful life has really become for everybody, at every age." She used the example of the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic and compared the idea of a pack to the "pods" many of us were attempting to stay in for safety and companionship. She said:
"And then you add on top of it, the commentary on the planet that he's making, and you realize that there's a bigger picture. What I really learned the last couple of years is that supernatural stories, in a really odd way, allow you to tell the most superhuman stories."
All eight episodes of "Wolf Pack" season 1 are currently streaming on Paramount+.