After a strong first and second season, MTV's hit supernatural drama Teen Wolf claws its way into a third season. The network not only announced the show's renewal this week at Comic-Con – but also that the series episode count has been doubled to include 24 episodes, instead of the 12 they had for the previous two seasons.

Loosely based on the '80s film of the same name, Teen Wolf centers on recently-turned teen werewolf Scott McCall (Tyler Posey), who is learning to cope with his newfound power while trying to maintain a normal life.

[WARNING TEEN WOLF SEASON 2 SPOILERS to FOLLOW]

 

 

 

This season, Scott’s life was made even more problematic as he had to not only avoid  his girlfriend Allison’s (Crystal Reed) werewolf hunting family – but a new lizard-like shapeshifting enemy known as a “Kanima,” revealed to be his high school rival Jackson Whittmore ( Colton Haynes). Scott had to make the difficult decision to join current Alpha-wolf Derek Hale (Tyler Hoechlin) to help Jackson before Allison’s family could put him down for good.

Teen Wolf currently airs on Mondays nights at 10/9c and draws in an average of 1.8 million total viewers each week. The series also has consistently dominated its timeslot in the 12-34 demographic, since the series premiere last year. MTV's head of programming, David Janollari, had this to say in a press statement:

"Teen Wolf represents a terrific foray into the scripted world for the millennial MTV audience, and marks tremendous success in the continued diversification of our schedule. Renewing the show for a third season celebrates the creative vision of Executive Producer Jeff Davis and the remarkable talent of the cast who bring this bona fide fan favorite to life."

The season 3 pick-up of Teen Wolf is undoubtedly great news for fans of the series – but the plan to extend the show may not be the best thing for a scripted show on MTV, which has always been more in the reality TV business. As a show that doesn’t feature the "Freak of the Week" format other similar shows like Smallville, or Supernatural follow, the season-long villains and storylines of Teen Wolf may be at risk of becoming overly drawn out, or could lose some of the less committed viewers.

Teen Wolf Renewed for Season 3 - Kanima

Jackson in his “Kanima” form

As of late, MTV has put a greater focus on scripted programming - with the renewal of freshman comedy Awkward and the launching of two new comedies The Inbetweeners (premieres Monday, Aug. 20 at 10:30), and Underemployed, which will premiere this fall. Teen Wolf season 3 will mark the highest episode count the network has ever given to a scripted series to date.

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Catch Teen Wolf  Mondays on MTV @ 10pm