Wolfblood Season Four Casting News

Thanks to some unavoidable delays in Wolfblood being recommisioned, we’re running on a rather slower schedule this year. However, we are finally at a point where I can tell you a few basics about the new season, which is filming at the moment.

The big news is: after three wonderful seasons, Bobby Lockwood (Rhydian), Kedar Williams-Sterling (Tom) and Louisa Connelly-Burnham (Shannon), have all decided to leave the show.

Sad as I am to see them go, I know they’ll be going on to great things, and I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing them well in their careers. Like Aimee Kelly (Maddy), they will always be part of our Wolfblood universe – and who knows, they may be back at some point in the future…

I know a lot of you will be upset by this – but remember, change is a good thing for a television series. Shows that remain the same throughout their run quickly grow boring and stale, to work on as well as to watch. The inevitable coming and going of cast members is one of the ways that we avoid that.

And as a children’s show, we’re very aware that our audience is interested in fellow tweens and teens. Following the same characters for years, into their twenties, simply wouldn’t appeal to our core audience, who are interested in school, home and family. Though it wasn’t our choice for any of the actors who’ve left to leave, their decision does allow Wolfblood to remain faithful to its core audience and ideas.

So, what can you expect from season four?

For the first time, the show will be moving outside Stoneybridge and into the big wide world. Jana, played Leona Vaughan, will now be our main character, and we’ll be following her as she embarks on a new life in the big city, and builds herself a new pack of Wolfbloods and humans… This season gives us a chance to expand the scope of the show, and to explore new locations and new characters that will reveal more about what it really means to be a Wolfblood!

I’ve always intended Wolfblood to be about Wolfbloods as a whole, not about one person, one family, or even one village. The scale of the Wolfblood world has been gradually expanding with every season, and this is just one more step along that pathway.

From the BBC press release:

Former wild Wolfblood Jana (Leona Vaughan) now takes centre stage, having left the security and seclusion of rural Stoneybridge and moved into the city where she forms a new pack.

The Wolfbloods who play a pivotal role in her adventures include corporate boss Imara (Michelle Gayle), her son TJ (Louis Payne), Matei (Jack Brett Anderson), his sister Emilia (Sydney Wade), and martial arts enthusiast Selina (Rukku Nahar). Returning characters include Katrina (Gabrielle Green), who has opened a new Kafe in town, Kay (Shorelle Hepkin) and their old teacher Mr Jeffries (Mark Fleischmann).

In a world of CCTV, social networks, 4G camera phones and viral videos, the wolfblood ‘secret’ is becoming increasingly vulnerable; faced with new dilemmas and foes, Wolfbloods have to adapt to survive and Jana faces her biggest challenges yet.

(read the full press release at http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2015/wolf-blood-goes-urban )

New characters, new dilemmas, and probably our most exciting season climax ever – something I’ve been planning since I first conceived of the series, in fact –  mean it’s going to be a unique and remarkable season!

Remember, you can keep up to date with developments at the Wolfblood FAQ, elsewhere on this site. Information on transmission dates, etc, will be posted there as soon as I have it…

Wolfblood Season Four Begins Filming…

Rather later than usual, Wolfblood season four began filming this morning, in and around Newcastle. And here’s our block one director, Jermain Julien, ready to do his thing…

CBBC will be making an official announcement of the returning and new cast soon. They’re preparing some really interesting website content to explain what happens between seasons three and four, and obviously revealing the cast now would be something of a spoiler… So once that content is ready, there’ll be an announcement, and I’ll reveal the same information here.

Season four is, I think, one of the best seasons we’ve done, with thrills and surprises and the culmination of a plot arc that I’ve been planning since I first came up with the idea. We’re all very eager for you to see the fruits of all our hard work, some time next year…

There Is No Chosen One

The reality show Project Greenlight is, well, a reality show. It has precious little to do with how movies are actually made, and to the best of my knowledge, it hasn’t ever produced a critical or a commercial hit. It’s not real Hollywood –

But right now, it is at least drawing attention to some of the very real issues faced by people in Hollywood who are trying to carve out a career with the disadvantage of not being white, male and heterosexual.

There are a lot of things to be said about Matt Damon’s statement, and the situation that led to up to it, and other people are saying them far more eloquently than I could. So instead of adding to that, I’d like to set out a proposal to make things better.

Let’s all remember – there is no chosen one.

In film and television, we recycle the myth of the chosen saviour who’s perfect for this situation, and has exactly the skills required, so often that we start to apply it behind the camera too. Somewhere out there, there’s a director/producer/cinematographer etc who is perfect for my project, and I just have to find them.

The thing is, that’s just not true, is it? Oh sure, there are “names” who’ll bring in funding (and that’s a whole other issue), but if you’re making a low-budget movie, hiring staff for a new TV series, making a web series, or even appearing on Project Greenlight, your choice is not “Ridley Scott or someone unknown”, it’s “someone unknown or someone unknown”.

So, putting aside names and reputations – your choice is always going to be between several people who are both equally talented and equally good for your project (albeit in fractionally different ways). I know, I’ve been there. you never end up with one obvious candidate. Never.

So whether you realise it or not, your decision is going to be largely arbitrary. You’re going to pick the person who made you laugh in the interview, or who you met last week at a party, or who your girlfriend’s brother’s best friend went to college with. (And all of those things are likely to lead you to someone the same race, sexuality, and probably gender, as you.)

Or you could make a different arbitrary decision. You could pick the black cinematographer, the editor who uses a wheelchair, the female director. Your decision is no less arbitrary than one made for those previous reasons, and you’re still picking from a pool of equally qualified and talented candidates – so why not deliberately pick the person who every one else is less likely to pick? That’s not positive discrimination or so-called “reverse racism” –  it’s as good a criteria for a decision between otherwise equal candidates as anything else.

If we all did this for a year, even, the spread of shiny white male faces who accompany every article in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter would start to look very different – and there would be no drop in quality in the films and television we’re producing at all. If anything, these super-motivated candidates seizing what might be their only chance would give more than the entitled guys who can always get a job elsewhere.

So how about it? Shall we give it a try?