David DiGilio (showrunner), Jack Carr (Novels & co-showrunner)

CAST
Taylor Kitsch
Tom Hopper
Dar Salim
Rona-Lee Shimon
Shiraz Tzarfati
Robert Wisdom

Review

The Terminal List universe is expanding with Dark Wolf, a prequel series that puts Ben Edwards, yes, that Ben from The Terminal List book and TV series, front and center. If you’ve watched The Terminal List, you’ll remember Edwards as the former SEAL turned CIA whose loyalties (yes, I said it) weren’t exactly pure. This time, though, we’re rolling the clock back to see how he got there.

The setup is solid: Edwards, a Navy SEAL, is pulled deeper into the CIA’s gray operations world. The hook is this idea that inside every man there are “two wolves” – one light, one dark. The question is, which one does Edwards feed? That’s a good premise, and it fits the morally murky world of Jack Carr’s books.

However, let me be honest, three episodes in, I’m still not sure what kind of story Dark Wolf wants to be. Is it a villain origin story, showing us how a man goes from loyalty to betrayal? Or is it more of a redemption arc that tries to explain (maybe even excuse) some of the things Edwards will do later? Right now, it feels like the show leans toward the latter, and that’s… interesting, but not quite what I expected.

Also, I have to say, I’ve never been to Iraq, but the setting here doesn’t exactly sell the immersion. And I don’t mean I was missing the tired Hollywood “yellow filter” trick. I just wanted a little more effort to make me feel like we were really there.

That said, the show has tension in spades, and that’s keeping me invested. Even knowing where Edwards eventually ends up in The Terminal List, I find myself curious about how this descent (or redemption?) will be mapped out. Maybe the show will lean harder into the “road to hell is paved with good intentions” angle later. At least, I hope it does.

For now, Dark Wolf is a promising, if uneven, start to this corner of the franchise. It’s entertaining, it’s tense, and it adds a new layer to Edwards, even if I’m not entirely convinced yet about the story they’re trying to tell. However, Kitsch is killing it in the show.

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