Chase Liefeld Reflects on Wolf Pack and Chang Can Dunk Airing Simultaneously (Exclusive)

It’s been a busy 2023 for Chase Liefeld. After arriving on the scene in 2019’s Sunnyside Up, Liefeld saw two of his breakout projects run somewhat simultaneously this year in the form of Paramount+’s Wolf Pack and Disney+’s Chang Can Dunk. Liefeld’s Wolf Pack tenure lasted the duration of Season 1’s back half, as he debuted as Baron in Episode 5: “Incendiary”, which premiered on February 23rd. The day after his third Wolf Pack episode premiered, Episode 7: “Lion’s Breath”, Chang Can Dunk hit the house of mouse’s streaming service. Chang Can Dunk represents Liefeld’s first feature film and was shot “a year” before he was in production on Wolf Pack.

Speaking to ComicBook.com, Liefeld reflected on his Chang Can Dunk experience, noting that it was the “perfect prelude” to grasping what to expect on future productions.

“Every time I’m on set, I typically take something away. Chang was my first experience on a bigger production. When that’s the case, a lot of things are new,” Liefeld said. “By the time I did Wolf Pack, I was completely in tuned creatively even when I was doing Chang, and I’m really proud of the work that all of us did in that movie. It was a perfect prelude. I did a play and a couple other things in between then. It was a great mixture of really warming up for what was Wolf Pack, which was probably the most challenging role I’ve had to play so far. But even then it was amazing, and (series creator) Jeff [Davis] makes it real easy. No complaints.”

Chang Can Dunk began its production in Fall 2021, concluding after just about six weeks. The Disney+ film then sat in post-production for well over one year before it hit the streamer on March 10th of this year. By comparison, Wolf Pack was a rapid turnaround.

“Around July (2022), I heard that I might be getting cast in this show,” Liefeld explained. “I was originally up for the two main guy roles, Everett and Harlan. I didn’t get either of those, but a couple months go by, and I get the news that I’m playing this character (Baron). I did Chang when I was 19. I was in community college for two weeks, dropped out, did [Chang] immediately, and then ever since then, it’s just been a journey through the audition matrix and just try to book jobs. Getting Wolf Pack was pretty great because it’s just exactly what I wanted to do. It broke me out of that typecast too because everyone’s always fighting what people see them as and then what they want to perceive themselves as, or how they want to market themselves. It was just a crazy opportunity.”

Wolf Pack Season 1 is streaming in full on Paramount+ while Chang Can Dunk can be seen on Disney+.