Wolf Like Me: Abe Forsythe talks inspiration for the series, baby storyline, and more

We sat down with Abe Forsythe, the creator of Wolf Like Me, to talk about the inspiration for the story, the baby discussions, and more.

Wolf Like Me Season 2 is now available to stream. We go into the story knowing that Mary is pregnant. The question is whether she’ll have a wolf or a human baby. It’s something she and Gary need to come to figure out.

How did the conversations about the baby go when it came to this baby storyline? What about the conversations about whether to go more into Mary’s past and how she became a werewolf? We talked to Abe Forsythe about this and much more in our exclusive interview.

Abe Forsythe talks about avoiding too much backstory in Wolf Like Me

Hidden Remote: To start, one thing I love is that we just get straight into the story. We’re not bogged down by how Mary became a werewolf. That doesn’t matter for Mary and Gary’s story. Did you do that on purpose?

Abe Forsythe: I really feel like you do need to make make it as believable as possible, but also not over-explain it as well. I have a problem with genre movies when they do go to great lengths lengths to explain how something like that does happen. It was the case with the zombie movie i made as well, too. I just need to know if they’re fast or slow. That’s enough. We’ve seen enough of these things. I don’t care being over explaining it to the audience. I just needed to make sense for the characters.

Some just get bogged down with the law in it and the explanation, and it’s like, no, we just jump straight in, we know nothing and it’s kind of the least interesting thing to me about the genre. I love genre movies but it is the least interesting thing and I don’t need an explanation of like in Jaws. We don’t need to know why the shark just keeps coming back and attacking all of these like this this town. Or like An American Werewolf. They’re they’re werewolves. It’s like that’s all you need.

HR: You mention An American Werewolf. There are so many werewolf stories out there. Did you take any inspiration from any of them?

AF: I mean, American Werewolf was an inspiration. In the sense that it is a comedy horror movie with a werewolf and has a lot of great practical gags in the same way that we particularly do with Wolf Like Me Season 2. But no, it was never conceived in that way.

It was more of an idea that dropped into my head that was that was like pertinent at a particular time in my life than about what it means to bring someone else. I’m a single parent; I’ve got a 12-year-old son. It was about what happens when I bring someone into this dynamic. I need to make sure it’s someone that is right for me but is also right for him. And then the element of it being a werewolf and making it work. It was more actually inspired by things that I was going through dealing with or thinking over in my own life than it was by anything external.

HR: I can relate to that as a single mom and bringing someone into my life or my ex bringing someone into his life. So, I did connect to the show with that element, and now you’ve added another layer with the werewolf and now the baby.

AF: It initially came about because I had started dating again. When my son was younger than he is now, and I just realized how fraught with danger it felt because anytime I met someone I would be straight away viewing them through the lens of okay, how is this person going to be with my child? Because you can’t, as a single parent, you can’t help it. You kind of wonder that because otherwise you just wasting everyone’s time.

I thought i’d have an encounter with someone where I thought maybe someone was going to be that, and it just happened to be a full moon on one of the nights that I was with them. Then the next day it made me think ‘well, what would you do if they were a werewolf?’ Because this person seemed so right in every way and then it was like, well you’d just you just make it work. You just find a way of making it work. And then that for me it was a really interesting jumping off point because I was like ‘okay well I’ve got baggage; someone else that I meet is going to have baggage.’

It’s actually about what kind of safe space you make for each other. So you can both deal with that and you don’t want to shut someone out of your life or your child’s life for one reason when they could be so right fo all these other reasons. So that created a really interesting triangle between the characters of Gary, Mary, and Emma.

And obviously, this metaphor continued into the second season with the pregnancy and wondering what you’re going to have. And the danger becomes that much more sort of extreme thisseason. So that when the characters keep making the choice to work through it and be together, hopefully, you’re more and more invested in them because you know, you can see how right they are for each other, in the face of the universe, kind of telling them that maybe they’re not.

HR: With the pregnancy, what were the conversations like as you developed the questions of whether it’s human or wolf?

AF: It just seemed to be a really like it was something that a lot of people that I had discussions with who had gone through pregnancies, it all set a similar thing of light not knowing what they’re growing inside of them. And the fear that all the things that you fear, which then when the baby presents itself just instantly goes away because you just go into the reactive mode of looking after child.

My ex is the mother of my child. When she was pregnant, it was a premature birth and I remember there was just a shock of going through that. All the fears that I had about being a parent instantly going away when I just was looking at my son, and ever since then I just can’t even think back to the time when I was worried about being a parent.

I had the idea of taking that idea and actually making it something that Mary’s worried about. What type of mother she’s going to be? She’s worried if she’s growing a baby or a wolf; she’s worried if the wolf is going to eat her from the inside; the baby’s going to eat her from the inside. She’s worried if she’s going to eat the baby.

HR: Is there a chance in Wolf Like Me Season 2 to explore Mary’s backstory? Any potential flashbacks to learn more?

AF: Possibly. Nothing’s on the table. I did make a creative choice in Season 1 to never have a flashback. There was an opportunity to do a flashback when she was telling the story of how she got bit. but it’s actually been one of those rules that that I’ve adhered to and I probably would keep adhering to it, which is it’s about dealing with the present.

Rather than going back to another time and and getting more content, I’d rather get contacts through what the characters are revealing, like, Antoine does in Season 2. We’re getting contacts in a completely unexpected way rather than actually sort of going back and witnessing it.

Wolf Like Me Season 2 is now available to stream on Peacock.