Hypable attended The Bite Convention earlier this month and will be bringing you a recap of the Teen Wolf convention for each of the three days. Here’s day two!
About BiteCon
BiteCon was a fan-run convention exclusively for Teen Wolf that started as a distant dream, but quickly became a reality. Inviting cast and crew members from the show, the staff behind BiteCon pulled together the convention in record time and created a memorable event not only for the fans, but for many of the people behind Teen Wolf as well.
Hypable and Not Another Teen Wolf Podcast were there each of the three days in order to moderate the panels, and even host a few of our own. We’ll be giving detailed reports on each of the three days the convention was operating so you won’t miss any of the important information that came out of the con. And when we’re all done, we’ll have some giveaways as well!
Day Two – Howlin’ Good Time
The cast and crew of Teen Wolf have been to conventions before, but many of those conventions do not focus strictly on that single show. BiteCon was the first exclusive Teen Wolf convention to be planned for the United States, and the first one to be carried out by fans of the show.
On day two, we had much of the cast attending the convention, including lead star Tyler Posey (Scott). Joining him were several of the writers, creator Jeff Davis, many of the adults, and quite a few Beacon Hills High students.
Writers’ Panel
The day began early with a panel full of the writers from Teen Wolf, including Angela Harvey, Alyssa Clark, Eric Wallace, and writer’s assistant Will Wallace. Though Will is not a writer yet and Eric just began writing on season 4, Harvey and Clark have been writing for a bit longer by this point. Although they had some standout episodes during season 3, everyone was excited to learn who would be writing which episodes on season 4.
It turns out that Clark wrote season 4, episode 3, and was (at the time of the convention) working on season 4, episode 7, noting that it was a bottle episode like “Night School” or “Motel California,” where it focused less on plot and more on a single character’s current state of being.
Harvey, on the other hand, wrote season 4, episode 5, and will be working on season 4, episode 8. Although we always get great pleasure in learning the titles of the episodes to come (and picking them apart for clues), Clark told the audience that series creator Jeff Davis is the one that usually comes up with the titles, and most of the time it’s only after the entire episode has been written.
During the panel, one fan asked if there would ever be a body swap episode, which seems to be something the fandom has been keen on for quite a while. Unfortunately, Clark says, “Probably not.” However, “I never say never, you know what I mean?” she continues. “We’ve talked about a body swap. A lot of shows have done it. A lot of shows have done it fantastically. It’s been done a lot, and a lot of times Jeff wants to try something new. But if there was a way to do it that was new that we came up with [we might consider it]. Last season kind of was our body swap,” she finishes, talking about the Void Stiles plot line.
Many fans were curious about Malia’s role in the new season, and one fan asked if her transition into Scott’s pack would be awkward or if it would be easy. “It’s going to be hella awkward!” Clark says. “She’s got a great journey ahead.” Eric Wallace continues that sentiment by saying, “Let’s just say we’re going to get to know her a lot better and she’s got a lot of sides. Some good, some bad, some interesting.”
And speaking of the possibility of getting to know people better, Clark also mentioned that there are some new wolves in town. “What their role, and what they’re doing, is to be seen,” she elaborates, “but yes, there will be new wolves in town. You will see.”
The panel also discussed the overall theme of the season, though they didn’t want to give anything away just yet. Clark said, “We are talking about control and things.” Eric added, “Also remember, for Scott, he hasn’t been an Alpha that long, right? End of season 3A. And y’all know how 3B went, so… I’m thinking he needs a little more practice. And that’s probably a theme that’ll come forward in a big way.”
Lydia was also a topic of interest, with Clark saying we’d get to see a bit more of the Martin past, in addition to Lydia possibly getting a banshee mentor or ally. Could this be Meredith, whom we’d met last season, or someone new? The writers didn’t elaborate.
And for those of you craving more Hale back story, you’re in luck! Clark also said, “Yeah, we will be learning more about the [Hale] family in some really interesting ways, I think.”
Ending the panel on a great note, Harvey gave some advice to those wishing to be a writer some day: “Write every day. Decide you’re going to be a writer. Decide you’re a writer right now. It’s not what someone pays you; it’s when you sit down and write [that] you are a writer.”
Guardians of the Galaxy
Up next was the Guardians of the Galaxy panel, which featured Melissa Ponzio (Melissa McCall), Linden Ashby (Sheriff Stilinski), Seth Gilliam (Dr. Deaton), and Eaddy Mays (Victoria Argent). It didn’t take long for the elephant in the room to be pointed out (the fact that Eaddy Mays’ character is dead), but it also allowed Linden to segue into a heartwarming speech about missing fellow actors when they leave the show: “As a cast member it’s so weird when characters go away. It’s weird for you guys watching but for us at work it’s really weird. It’s like they leave a void. They leave a hole. It’s really weird. It’s really lonely and I feel like we’re missing something.”
The rest of the panel was equal parts hilarious and gut-wrenching, especially when one fan asked what they would say to their characters if they had a chance. “You’re doing all right,” Ponzio said, to which the room replied with a giant, “Aww!” Gilliam said, “Stop babying him,” referring to Scott. Ashby said, “Just ask her out already,” which got cheers from the crowd, while Mays’ answer, “Forgive yourself for not being there for her,” nearly brought the room to tears.
And speaking of Melissa and the Sheriff dating, another fan asked if their sons, Scott and Stiles, would be excited to see their parents get together or if they would think it was weird. “I think they’d actually be excited,” Ashby said. “I think that they’d be really happy that their parents are happy.”
“Yeah, to me it’s like it’s been going like this [two points merging into a peak],” added Ponzio. “It’s a known thing, a known energy, so I don’t think that they would be surprised by it and I think they’d be happy for them.”
Fans were also interested in Victoria’s relationship with her daughter, Allison. In particular, they were curious as to why Victoria chose to keep her daughter in the dark about werewolves. “I made the decision that the reason [Allison] was in the dark was that I specifically didn’t want her to turn out like Kate,” Mays said. “And I didn’t want her to turn out like me. I wanted her to have a childhood.”
Alphas Only
Over lunch, creator Jeff Davis held his own panel for attendees that had purchased an Alpha pass for the convention. It started off with a great question about a rumor that had been circulating for quite a while — was Jackson’s story given to Malia since Colton Haynes left the show for Arrow?
“Not correct,” Davis replied. “I always wonder how much of the stories that we can no longer tell you guys actually want to hear because I know it’s a weird subject to broach now because Colton’s no longer on the show, and we did have a plan for that season, for 3A, but we were just never sure he wanted to come back.”
Saying that although bits and pieces of Jackson’s story for season 3 ended up going to Malia, it wasn’t entirely passed on to her. “One of the alphas in the alpha pack had murdered Jackson’s parents,” Davis explained, “and it gives him reason to side with either Derek or Scott in season 3A; to go along with Derek and say, ‘We need to kill the alphas because one of them murdered my family.'”
And speaking of Malia, she was once again a hot topic. When one fan asked where the idea for Malia came from, Davis responded, “Well, when we first came up with the idea of Malia, we knew we were going to do the kind of asylum episode that was… We wanted it to sort of be the Shining episode where it was a creepy asylum and we would have Stiles go into this terrible place and go through this sort of trial in this asylum episode, and that would be the real sort of confrontation between him and the nogitsune. And we knew we wanted to have someone there for him to bond with, and we were talking about what kind of character would he bond with and would it be interesting to bring this character back from the first two episodes of Malia, the werecoyote.”
After talking about how they come up with the idea to make Malia Peter’s daughter, Davis said, “It was a way to broaden these characters, and we really liked Shelley. It was supposed to be a guest star role, but when we started to see the footage come back of her, we were like, ‘Wow, she’s beautiful, she’s magnetic on screen, and wouldn’t it be interesting if we could build this character?’ And one of the difficulties was, we didn’t know if we were going to be able to get her back for another season. I think I said in another interview there was a certain point where I was like, ‘Guys, are we going to be able to have her? Can she at least do a few guest stars. I feel like we have a story with her and Peter. Are we going to be able to build that?’ And thankfully she signed on, so you’re going to be seeing a lot more of that. And I think she’s going to be a really fun character to play, too. We’re trying to build her some humor, as well. One of the things we’re kind of excited about this season is that we get back to a lot of humor. There’s a bit more adventure this season. It’s not quite as terrifying and dark, although we do have our scary moments.”
Davis also repeated what the writers said earlier about Malia’s new position in Scott’s pack: “It’s going to be awkward for her at first. She is still… The pack, Stiles and Scott, are trying to help integrate her back into society. She’s been living out in the wild, and she has a sort of fight or flight instinct inside her, and she’s actually the toughest one in the pack right now. She’s like kill or be killed. So it’s going to be a little dangerous for the others, and I think it’s going to be awkward at first.”
Though Davis wouldn’t say much about season 4, he did mention that we’d be learning more about Kira’s family history, that Derek’s loft might not survive the season, and Gerard’s story is definitely not over. Oh, and when he was asked about Stiles making Derek the king on the chessboard, Davis said he couldn’t talk about that.
A fan asked about Danny, wondering how long he’d known that Beacon Hills housed supernatural creatures and if that would be explored more in season 4. “I can’t tell you about season 4. No spoilers,” Davis said. “[Danny] was always that character, for me, that was in the shadows, that knew about all this stuff, and was playing the good game. I thought it makes him smart, it makes him… it actually makes him one of the smartest people in Beacon Hills. To not be involved, to stay alive.”
When asked specifically if Danny knew before Scott got bit, he said, “I think probably.”
As a fun tidbit to end the panel, when asked about spinoffs, Davis relayed a story about a spinoff they had been thinking about doing previously. “There was a plan to do a show called Beacon Hills, and it would’ve been about young Derek and the Hales,” Davis said, causing the crowd to gasp. “I thought I talked about this! And Christian Taylor, who was tasked with coming up with a lot of the ideas. And what you hear in the episode ‘Visionary’ when they talk about Beacon Hills, they describe it as a much darker place and a much more dangerous place. And we had a bunch of ideas about that, about what to do and how to broaden the world a little bit of Beacon Hills, and make it a kind of… we talked about it as kind of Gotham City before Batman came in. It was dangerous and terrible and frightening. And if you weren’t a supernatural creature, you could be picked off at any time, which is of course the Beacon Hills present day.”
Boss Lacrosse Bros
The last panel of the day was entitled Boss Lacrosse Bros. Seeing as all four members on the panel Tyler Posey, Keahu Kahuanui, Sinqua Walls, and Arden Cho are teammates or former teammates of the Beacon Hills lacrosse team.
Yes, ladies and gentleman. If you hadn’t heard before the panel reveal, you may have been scratching your head a bit as to why exactly this group was put together. But we can assure you that when the BiteCon staff were assembling their panel line ups, they were quite aware that Kira would be joining the all boys lacrosse team in season 4 of Teen Wolf. And apparently this is going to be an incredible season in general if we go off of anything Tyler Posey had to say during the event.
When the lead actor on the show was asked what he considered his best scene to shoot was, Posey responded that his favorite was one we hadn’t actually seen yet, teasing, “Yeah we’ve had some really cool stuff this season. It’s like the coolest stuff we’ve shot.” Cho chimed in to relieve a bit of our curiosity by giving us some clues as to what the favorite scenes were, so we would know when they came across our screen, “So you guys know when you see it – One, Lakehouse… And then the desert?” Double checking with her co-star that she was on the right track.
Season 4 talk wasn’t the only item up for discussion at the panel though. Plenty of reflecting on past seasons and characters was done as well. For instance, when a fan asked Walls how he would have liked Boyd’s storyline to have played out if he had stayed on show, the actor shared one of his personal desires, “I was actually just saying in the greenroom that I would have loved if we’d had a prom episode – Like an actual prom episode and after all the craziness Erica and Boyd would go to prom together.” You can imagine the heartfelt groans of sadness and longing that erupted from the audience.
Luckily though there was room for laughter and fun at the panel as well. After being asked when exactly he thought Danny had figured out what was going on in Beacon Hills, Kahuanui responded, “I think he figured it out a long, long, long time ago. And was like I’M NOT TOUCHING THAT!” Which of course Posey was quick to point out that he did indeed “touch that”. Prompting Kahuanui to revel in the lude behavior by responding “BUT I DID! More than once!”
Come back tomorrow to find out what happened on day three! If you’d like to see more pictures and hear more stories from our time on set and at BiteCon, be sure to follow the NATWP Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram accounts, as well as keep an eye on our podcast page. You can also read the day one recap here.
All photos are copyright of Tiffany Chien.