Lycanthropic social deduction game Werewolves of Miller's Hollow is being turned into a Netflix series

If you put a Jumanji-esque film adaptation for the popular social deduction game Werewolves of Miller's Hollow on your 2024 bingo card, how does it feel to be so weirdly specific and yet vindicated? Lui-même’s French sensation will hit Netflix’s silver screen as Family Pack in October of this year and star a number of well-known French actors including Leon: The Professional’s Jean Reno.

Based solely on a 1.5-minute-long trailer released earlier this month, it looks like Family Pack will chomp heavily on the Jumanji formula, thrusting an entire extended family through the game board and into a medieval village. While stranded there, everyone must adhere to their assigned roles and harness their specific abilities in order to survive both the werewolves and the worst aspersions of their fellow village members. It even has the glowing wooden box and carved game pieces.

The trailer contained plenty of thrills and light tension that would place it squarely as a family comedy with a PG storyline (for those familiar with the US rating system) full of thrills but no outright maiming or murder. Seen amongst the shots are angry villagers with torches, a zealous knight roughing up the temporal interlopers and at least one in-joke about the “players” lying to conceal their roles.

If you’ve never played Werewolf or any of its derivatives, it’s a big-group game where roles in a village besieged by werewolves are secretly distributed on cards. The werewolves want to murder the villagers one-by-one until they are the last alive, while the villagers will desperately attempt to smoke out the wolves in linen trousers via nightly votes. If you’ve watched reality TV series The Traitors lately, they use a very similar system.

Werewolves of Miller's Hollow’s strength lies in the paranoia and distrust that organically grows between a group as more people fall claws and teeth. Brash decision making can lead vital members of the village (and their unique abilities) into an early grave, letting the Werewolves lean back as everyone turns on themselves. The game can be a bit unwieldy at higher player counts but has managed to secure pop culture recognition through the stories it generates.

Family Pack will hit Netflix in October of this year, but it’s not yet clear if it’ll be available outside of France and Europe more broadly at the same time. Board games have been flirting with cinematic adaptations more regularly in the past few years - Terraforming Mars is leading the way with a screenplay apparently deep in production, and the man responsible already has plans for his next project.