In early 2009, there was talk that MTV was planning to kick off a Teen Wolf spin-off television series which would star Tyler Posey from ABC’s Lincoln Heights. According to reports announced Wednesday, May 19, the series was officially picked up by the network.

Inspired by the 1985 film, Teen Wolf, which starred Michael J. Fox as an American teenager who discovered he was a werewolf, the new teenage werewolf will transform after being attacked by a werewolf. On top of the normal struggles he faced with puberty and high school in the original, it turned out that being a werewolf was just the thing he needed to boost his popularity and make him a basketball superstar.

MTV’s Liz Gateley noted back in August 2009 the spin-off was very different from the original movie, which would bring it into the modern age.

The network has high hopes that on the tailwind of successful series like True Blood and Vampire Diaries, television viewing audiences may be ready for a furry hero.

Criminal Minds director, Jeff Davis, wrote the series, and will executive produce it with Rene Echevarria, Marty Adelstein and Michael Thorn. It will costar Tyler Hoechlin, Crystal Reed and Dylan O’Brien.

As a tween, Teen Wolf was one of my favorite movies, so I’ll be interested to see just how different the re-imagining is from the original film. For a 1980s film, it was actually pretty cool, so we’ll see just what they do with it.