Exclusive: The Order trailer showcases Netlix’s 'double agent' werewolf drama

For fans jonesing for a magical, cultish, college-age drama where werewolf wars rage and tutors are constantly crushworthy, Netflix’s upcoming series The Order might cast the perfect spell.

With a 10-episode first season launching at the start of March, the series from Ghost Wars’ Dennis Heaton, Continuum’s Shelley Eriksen, and the same production company that made Van Helsing will be a fish-out-of-water story that promises to be a schlocky good time — and SYFY WIRE has an exclusive first look for you.

Check out the first trailer for The Order:

That’s Belgrave University freshman Jack Morton (Jake Manley), who’s looking to join a magical secret society: the Hermetic Order of the Blue Rose. And it’s no “fake news,” as the trailer puts it. They're real and they're very magical. "They're doing these rituals because they're controlling the world," Heaton told SYFY WIRE. The Order is also key to Jack’s magical education and a gateway to an underground, supernatural war.

Manley told us that Jack is a “complete stranger” to magic, who's out to join the dark magic-manipulating Order “to get revenge on his father” and “uncover some family secrets,” all while toppling into a battle between the professors and some werewolves. “Jack grows up with his kind of crazy grandfather and comes from a working class background, but he’s a really smart guy,” said Manley, who hadn’t seen the trailer yet when we spoke.

Credit: Netflix

With a few tough professors and Alyssa (Sarah Grey), who acts as Jack’s tutor in all things magical, the Harry-Potter-meets-Skull-and-Bones world has plenty of secrets — especially when Jack stumbles into a masked, Eyes Wide Shut-esque meeting.

"There's a lot of [occultist] Aleister Crowley influence in the show," Heaton said. "There was one story in particular that always stuck with me. It was the one time it seemed to be documented, actual magic that he performed. He illuminated a completely blackened room. And he did this with a bit of disdain because there was a gaudiness to it, to doing this parlor trick. His organizational structures were all an influence on the show, not just on the characters, but on the world of The Order and how they structured their secret societies."

As Jack’s powers grow, he has to decide what to do with them — which comes up at the end of the trailer when he’s covered in some mysterious, furry force, potentially bringing him far closer to the werewolves than the Order ever expected. “Without saying too much,” Manley said, “[Jack] gets trapped playing double agent for two different societies.” Yes, Jack is on both sides of this lycanthropic war.

“He’s got to make his choice on who are the good guys and who are the bad guys,” the actor continued, confirming that Jack’s family drama gets caught up in all this as well. The story will also have a class component — as any story of a blue-collar kid coming up in a hoity-toity secret society might — which helps ground the fantastical drama.

The Order's first season, which will cover Jack's first year at school, hits Netflix on March 7.