The Terminal List is finally returning to the 2025 TV schedule; however, it’s not for Season 2 (yet). While the long-awaited sophomore installment is coming, we’re going back in time first to learn more about Taylor Kitsch’s character, Ben Edwards. So, while chatting with the actor and the series’ co-creator and showrunner, they told me why they wanted to make this show and how it was actually inspired by Ben’s final scene with Chris Pratt’s James Reece in the original series.
While the incredibly popular first season of The Terminal List and its upcoming second installment are book-to-screen adaptations of Jack Carr’s novel, Dark Wolf is not. It’s a totally new story about the origins of Kitsch’s character, and it will help us better understand the choices he made that ultimately led to his brutal betrayal of Pratt’s Reece and his death at the hands of his friend at the end of Season 1.
When I asked DiGilio about the creation of this series, he said it was that final sequence where Reece killed Ben that inspired Dark Wolf, as he explained:
I think the end of The Terminal List changed how we thought about Ben, and through that change came Dark Wolf. Truly, that final scene between Ben and Reece was maybe one of the best scenes that I think we have ever been a part of. To watch those two guys walk into that, bringing the weight of what they’ve been through on that journey, and seeing the empathy and the love between these two operators play out, and the tragedy of it. So for us, we knew there was something special, just from that night of filming.
If you have read The Terminal List and watched the series with an Amazon Prime subscription, you’ll know that Ben is quite different between the two. He’s more cold-blooded in the book. Meanwhile, in the show, he helps Reece with his list, and he regrets his actions against his friend, leading him to be fairly understanding of Pratt’s character’s choice to kill him. Ultimately, that emotional reaction makes that final gunshot even harder to hear, and it made me wonder why Ben did all this in the first place.
To that point, DiGilio told me that moment, and Ben’s feelings about it sparked quite the debate online, which is what led to conversations about Dark Wolf. He said:
But then, when the show came out, and people got to the end, and this enormous debate erupted in the fan base about ‘Did Ben deserve that fate or not?’ That really launched Dark Wolf. That discussion launched Dark Wolf.
The talk about that scene and if Ben deserved his fate “launched Dark Wolf,” and we can ultimately thank Kitsch’s performance and Pratt’s love for him and his character for all of that, the showrunner told me. He also explained that out of that, they wanted to answer questions about how Ben got to this point in his life; how he became the dark wolf.
Elaborating on that point, DiGilio said:
And so we knew we had to go back seven years and meet him as a light wolf, somebody who was in the SEAL teams, who loved the teams, loved the brotherhood. Who then maybe didn’t quite fit in the rules and regulations of the teams at the time.
For context, Dark Wolf starts right when Ben leaves the SEALS. We learn why he has to go, and the show explains how he wound up connected to the CIA. All of that ultimately helps explain why he acts the way he does in The Terminal List. Speaking to that idea and addressing why he wanted to play Ben again, Taylor Kitsch told me:
I think for me, you always want to shine a little bit of light in the darkness of these guys, right? Of course, they’re heroes. Of course, they’re a certain breed to do what they do. But I kind of leaned in or hung my hat on the repercussion of his service, and what it is that makes him tick, and what it means to lose the trident to somebody that lives for that brotherhood. So that’s kind of where I started with him.
When I finished watching The Terminal List, I certainly needed to learn more about Ben. In the original show, he’s kind of an enigma and his motivations, while clear, needed elaboration. This prequel should give us that, and we can thank that final rollercoaster of a scene that ended in Ben’s death for it.
So, now that we know why Dark Wolf got made and the scene that inspired it, it’s time to get excited. Chris Pratt has said this new show is better than Terminal List Season 1, and between that and the idea that we’re going to get Ben’s backstory, I cannot wait.
To see how Ben’s story began and the experiences that made him the man we met in Terminal List, you can stream the three-episode premiere of Dark Wolf on Wednesday, August 27, with a Prime Video subscription. After that, episodes will drop weekly on Wednesdays.