Stream It Or Skip It?

Amid all its grim death and a frowny Chris Pratt lead performance, we felt like Taylor Kitsch was one of the best parts of The Terminal List. Maybe its creators did, too, because Jack Carr, author of the Terminal List books, and David DiGilio, showrunner for the series, have teamed again for a seven-episode prequel. In Dark Wolf, Taylor Kitsch is Chief Special Warfare Operator Ben Edwards, whose life as a Navy SEAL is about to take a turn in a new direction. Doesn’t mean he won’t be shooting guys and taking names, but the shadows tend to grow once the CIA gets involved. Pratt also returns as veteran SEAL James Reece in Dark Wolf, and the series will feature Tom Hopper, Dar Salim, and Luke Hemsworth.

Opening Shot: “What are we fighting for when we step on that battlefield?” We hear the voice of Ben Edwards (Kitsch), who’s in street clothes as he attends the same military funeral service that began The Terminal List.  

The Gist: “This is my story,” the Edwards voiceover continues, and Dark Wolf quickly flashes back to seven years before that funeral. It’s 2015, and we’re in Mosul, Iraq, where Edwards and Lieutenant Raife Hastings (Hopper) are leading a Navy SEAL advise-and-assist team in training Iraqi Special Operations forces. Targets, tactics, and force multipliers – the SEALs are training the ISOF guys in all of it. But Edwards stresses a central point that for him functions like a belief system. “The most important part of this is getting your teammate to cover.”

The forward operating base outside Mosul is also where Lieutenant Commander James Reece (Pratt) comes in. He’s slated to take over the training while Edwards’ team moves elsewhere. Reece also brings words of encouragement from back home, with dialogue that points out the themes of honor code and grind of deployment that Dark Wolf is working with. “You boys need to hear that what we’re doing out here is appreciated. People didn’t say that enough during our fathers’ wars.”

For these special operators, their brotherhood, formed in sweat and conflict, is everything. But it’s also a pillar Edwards will rely on as his circumstances with the SEALs suddenly and radically change. Where does a guy trained to do highly dangerous work transition when he must leave the brotherhood to which he gave everything? We’ve all seen enough shows involving shadowy CIA operatives and black bag work to know the agency is certainly an option. But as Edwards considers his next move, he’s a little surprised to learn Raife Hastings will be making it with him. Hastings has his own reasons for a pivot away from the SEALs, and motivations that dig deep into his family’s generational experience with war. 

The thing about the character of Ben Edwards and Dark Wolf is that if you saw The Terminal List or read the Jack Carr book series, you know where this is going. It’s a prequel series, after all. But it does seem committed to drawing additional details from the page. For example, Raife Hastings as a character is all over those books, but until now has never appeared onscreen. And Dark Wolf, besides being a prequel, is also billed as “An Origin Story.” So we can expect Ben Edwards’ path – the good of it and all of the bad – to be thoroughly illuminated.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? SEAL Team ended after seven seasons, the John Krasinski-led Jack Ryan ended after four, we’ve heard nothing more about Michael Peña leading a Jack Ryan spinoff, and while there’s some chatter about a third season for Lioness, who knows, because Taylor Sheridan is super busy. All of which means the arrival of The Terminal List: Dark Wolf – as well as the upcoming second season of Terminal List itself – can fill a certain kind of Dad TV vacuum. Dark Wolf’s first episode even casts Sheridan-O-Verse vet and Lioness co-star Lamonica Garrett as a gruff SEAL commander.        

Our Take: The early going of The Terminal List: Dark Wolf spends a big chunk of time with bros being dudes in their tactical sweatshirts and plate carriers, slapping each other on the back and shouting things like “Long live the brotherhood” and “Let’s fucking go.” And while that’s all directed with requisite skill by Frederick E.O. Toye – he just won an Emmy for his work with Shōgun – we felt impatience as we anticipated what’s next. It’s no spoiler for anyone to say we know Ben Edwards leaves the SEALs. When this series begins inside the funeral from its parent series, there is a reason he’s not in uniform.

Without ruining it for you, Edwards and Raife Hastings both will find their concept of duty and brotherhood tested once they enter the unpredictable landscape where the Central Intelligence Agency operates. And while the tone and aesthetic of Dark Wolf is very different from The Agency, what both of these shows have in common besides the CIA as a subject is a main character in ideological conflict with his demanding employer. We don’t know if Dark Wolf is gonna show us exactly how Ben Edwards became the Dark Wolf, which as a title feels airport novel generic. But we are interested in Taylor Kitsch building on the brood he brought to the Edwards role in Terminal List, or perhaps showing us how he got that way in the first place. And yeah, the guns and jocularity and serious people saying stuff like “Team 1, go!” into ear bud microphones – that’ll be here, too, which is its own draw for shows such as this.  

Sex and Skin: None. 

Parting Shot: The first episode of Dark Wolf concludes with a major setup for what’s to come, the details of which we won’t spoil here. But it’s safe to say the series has thoughts about what brotherhood means to people who live their lives in the line of fire.

Sleeper Star: The Umbrella Academy cast was super talented and went crazy deep, and we still thought Tom Hopper stood out as Luther. So we’re interested in seeing what Hopper brings to Dark Wolf as Raife Hastings, a key character from the Terminal List books who was only mentioned in the series adaptation.

Most Pilot-y Line: “May our courage exceed our level of violence.” The phrase follows Edwards from a banner in his quarters to his experience in battle. It also feels prophetic, given what we know of his future via The Terminal List.

Our Call: Stream It. The Terminal List: Dark Wolf picks up the thread of action-oriented shows exploring the depths of covert ops and the toll that stuff takes on the people doing the work. But as a prequel to Terminal List, we’re most interested in how Taylor Kitsch builds out his intriguing character from that show.

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.