The latest installment of “The Terminal List” series, a prequel titled “The Terminal List: Dark Wolf,” unveils the blackside of operations with one of the most realistic TV depictions to date. This espionage thriller is packed full of heart-pounding, edge-of-your-seat moments throughout the seven episodes on Prime Video.
The series follows former Navy SEAL Ben Edwards (played by actor Taylor Kitsch) as he transitions to CIA special operations. Author of “The Terminal List” book series Jack Carr said that while developing the script, they had written “some men go to war to fight the enemy, others go to war to fight themselves” on the top of their storyboard. The authenticity of the show was carefully crafted with the help of experienced veterans, from the actors’ trigger discipline to the little details in the background of each scene.
“Dark Wolf” is meant to be a respectful and thoughtful display of a fictional story with events that connect to reality. Navy veteran Carr and his team ironed out the details so those reflected in the show are honored, and the real-life moral complexities operators face are better understood. It’s something Carr made sure to impart on the SEALs he trained while serving, saying the moral high ground is what separates the good guys from the bad guys.
“I didn’t want somebody facing some sort of moral dilemma on the battlefield to be the first time they’re thinking about it. I wanted to talk about it. When you’re making a decision, under fire or just in the heat of the moment, you’re going to live with that for the rest of your life,” Carr said. “I play with that a little in the books, and then we have this character, Ben, and we know how he ends up after the first season. So some of that trick is — people who know what he did in the first season — to tell a compelling story, knowing where he ends up. To me, that is compelling.”
Five of the seven episodes were written or co-written by veterans, and a total of 25 veterans worked on the show as actors, writers and advisors, as well as several other positions. They had former Army Rangers and Navy SEALs as advisors and executive producers, and even talked about different aspects of the show with former members of the CIA.
“So we have a lot of military influence in there, not just from the SEAL side, but from the Army side as well. It’s really cool to see these guys get out and thrive on the Hollywood side of the house and be so invested in this as well. A lot of us were all buddies beforehand, and if we weren’t buddies beforehand, now we’re like a family,” Carr explained.
He said the set for the show was like a military command both on and off camera, giving examples like director Antoine Fuqua as the commanding officer and actor Chris Pratt (who plays Navy SEAL James Reece) as the troop commander. He said just like a SEAL team, they had people filling roles for mobility, armorer, explosives and many other areas that led to such an authentic show while taking care of everyone on set.
Scenes show hyper-realistic “shoot, move, and communicate” just as a SEAL team or other commando-type unit would move on a target during deployment. The fluidity of movement on set reflects the tight bonds they all share, comparable to special operations teams.
“It still astounds me how we have, let’s say, 350 people on set, getting them to the right place at the right time with the right gear for that specific scene, and yell ‘action’ and have everybody prepared, ready to do it,” Carr said. “It’s a lot of moving pieces to get in one place at one time without anything going wrong, and it still astounds me to this day.”
