Bitten: 10 Changes From The Books Made To The Show

Canadian television series Bitten debuted in the aftermath of popular paranormal shows such as Teen Wolf, True Blood, and The Vampire Diaries. Like True Blood and The Vampire Diaries, Bitten was adapted from a popular supernatural book series that features the adventures of otherworldly characters as they struggle to fit in with regular society.

Kelley Armstrong’s Women Of The Otherworld book series provides the source material for this television adaptation. Although the central premise of the story is faithful to its origins, many other elements have been altered and extended for the small screen.

10 The Death Of Antonio

Pack member Antonio Sorrentino dies tragically in Season 1 during an altercation with the mutts. This is a diversion from Kelley Armstrong’s Women Of The Otherworld series; in the books, Antonio is still alive and survives his encounter with Daniel and his comrades.

Antonio’s character meets a different fate in the books, but the Pack still takes heavy losses during the first installment Bitten. Logan is found dead instead before Peter is murdered.

9 A Bigger Role For Logan

Logan dies early in the Otherworld series and, although his death devastates Elena, he remains a secondary character. He is killed off-page by Thomas LeBlanc after the mutts provoke a war with the Pack.

Logan’s role is vastly extended for the television adaptation. His relationship with Rachel, written for the show, features heavily throughout the series as her character falls pregnant before being kidnapped by Aleister and becoming a witch.

8 Why Clay Bit Elena

Elena Michaels resents her former lover Clayton for biting her and turning her into the world’s only female werewolf. However, in the first season of Bitten, Elena discovers that Clay had a good reason for his actions after all.

Jeremy confesses that he was planning to kill Elena after he thought she saw him transform, and Clay bit her to save her life. This differs from the books; Clay’s motivations are less noble and he acts irrationally to keep Elena in his life.

7 Paige And Nick’s Relationship

The witch coven and the werewolf Pack come together in Season 2 of Bitten, and sparks fly between Paige Winterbourne and Nick Sorrentino. The couple shares chemistry, though their romance is strictly a show-only feature.

Paige and Nick rarely interact in the Otherworld books. Paige narrates the third and fourth installments in the series, Dime Store Magic and Industrial Magic, and shares a romance with a sorcerer named Lucas Cortez.

6 Aleister

Aleister is a chilling and powerful antagonist for Elena and the Pack in Bitten. Like Paige and Nick’s relationship, however, his character is a show-only creation and does not appear in the Women Of The Otherworld books.

Elena is kidnapped and held hostage in a compound in the second book Stolen, but by different bad guys and for different reasons. In the books, a sadistic billionaire named Tyrone Winsloe kidnaps supernatural people to investigate the source of their powers and hunt them for sport.

5 Ruth’s Age And Role

Another character who was largely altered during the book to television adaptation is Ruth Winterbourne. Ruth plays an integral role in the second season of Bitten as an ally to the Pack and the mother of Aleister and Paige.

In the books, Ruth is an elderly woman who is kidnapped alongside Elena after warning the werewolves about the present danger. Sadly, Ruth is murdered by a telekinetic half-demon whilst teaching the young witch Savannah how to harness her abilities.

4 The Undoing

The threat of The Undoing hangs over the heads of the characters in Bitten. Aleister plots to fulfill the ancient prophecy that will destroy all of the witches by injecting Elena with Savannah’s blood.

This dark prophecy is another show-only component that does not feature in the books. The Otherworld characters face separate danger in the final book Thirteen when they battle against the Supernatural Liberation Movement.

3 Daniel’s Death

Daniel Santos is a primary antagonist for the Pack in Season 1 of Bitten and the first book in the Otherworld series. The former Pack member transforms serial killers into werewolves and schemes to overthrow the Pack and capture Elena.

In the show, Elena kills Daniel in a tense scene that depicts the true extent of the werewolf’s power. In the books, Daniel dies suddenly after being killed by his comrades, and Elena transforms into a wolf to take out Thomas LeBlanc.

2 The Genetics Of Witches

In Season 2 of Bitten, the witches reveal that they purposely birth only female offspring due to the looming prophecy of The Undoing. This differs from the Otherworld series once more; in the books, witches are biologically incapable of having male children and only birth daughters.

Male spell-casters called sorcerers exist in the book series. They are described as a separate species as opposed to male and female counterparts of the same race.

1 The Council Of Alphas

In addition to Rachel and Aleister’s characters, another feature from the show that doesn’t appear in the books is the Council of International Alphas. Although a Russian Alpha is mentioned in Frostbitten, the North American Pack is isolated from other werewolves around the world.

The Pack is heavily reclusive throughout the Otherworld series, rejoining the supernatural world in Stolen with a weary reluctance. In the show, werewolves are portrayed as having a political system as well as global contact between Packs.

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