Warning: The following contains spoilers for the Teen Wolf movie. When Paramount+ announced the intention for a Teen Wolf movie as a sequel to the MTV series, information about returning cast members slowly trickled out in the following months. One of the main cast members of the original series, Dylan O’Brien, however, decided not to return for the movie. O’Brien’s Stiles was often the comic relief of the series, but he also quickly became the heart of the pack, making his absence in the movie a huge hole that the Teen Wolf movie can’t get beyond.
Teen Wolf premiered on MTV in 2011 and ran for six seasons. In those six seasons, a few of the main characters remained the same. Tyler Posey, Dylan O’Brien, and Holland Roden appeared in the most episodes of the series as main characters Scott, Stiles, and Lydia. Even when O’Brien didn’t appear in a large stretch of episodes, his absence became integral to the plot of the show. That doesn’t happen in the Teen Wolf movie.
Stiles’ Absence Leaves A Hole In The Movie
The Teen Wolf movie works hard to remind the audience of the connections between the characters, having Malia be one of the confidantes of Derek’s son, having Liam appear in the nick of time to help Scott, having Scott go to Lydia for help in the first place. While all of these moments remind the audience that this group of characters has a history, the different moments lack emotional connection. That’s because all of these characters have bigger connections to Stiles.
Stiles and Scott are best friends from a very young age. Stiles is the one who helps Malia adjust to the human world after spending years as a coyote, and is, arguably, her first love. Stiles is also the one who believes in Lydia unconditionally before anyone else realizes how intelligent she is. Stiles is who helps to bring all of those characters together. His unwavering loyalty to Scott and his pack, something even Scott’s beta Liam doesn’t initially have, is part of what makes him such a beloved character. It’s almost unthinkable for not a single one of the people who mean so much to him to attempt to ask him for help.
At one point in the movie, Mason and Parrish bring up to Sheriff Stilinski that he should call the FBI or his son for help with their serial arsonist, but Stilinski makes the offhand comment that Stiles has his own fires to put out. Stiles’ jeep is still being held and cared for in Derek’s garage, though Derek’s son keeps “borrowing” it. The movie tries to make a point that Stiles is still on the minds of the people in his life, but it falls flat without Stiles there. That’s especially true since the big villain of the movie is the nogitsune, a spirit that actually inhabited Stiles and used his guise to target the McCall Pack. Not even having the characters mention that the last nogitsune they battled used Stiles’ face to get to them is more than just an oversight.
Lydia’s Is The Only Character Served By Stiles’ Absence
There is really only one character whose emotional arc in the movie is served by the absence of Stiles, and that’s Lydia Martin. Lydia, who discovers she’s a banshee in high school, is the one girl that Stiles is in love with for pretty much his entire life. The two of them finally begin a relationship at the end of the Teen Wolf series, but by the time the movie opens, the two have broken up and Lydia hasn’t been using her banshee skills.
When Lydia is pushed about why she hasn’t been using her abilities, Jackson offers up that it must have to do with Stiles, and it’s eventually revealed that she broke up with him partly due to her abilities as well. Nightmares of Stiles dying in a car accident were indistinguishable from premonitions, prompting Lydia to leave Stiles to keep him safe.
Her screaming, or banshee wailing, as she reminds everyone, is something she doesn’t use so that she doesn’t have to have a premonition of his death. Her own heartbreak at leaving Stiles is something the movie’s villain exploits for his own gain. The nogitsune feeds on pain and fear, and Lydia is full of it because of the way her relationship with Stiles ended. Lydia has to push through her own fear and heartbreak to use her abilities again, and it’s the only emotional payoff the audience gets for the repeated reminders of Stiles’ absence.
Why Isn’t Stiles In The Teen Wolf Movie?
Ultimately, Stiles isn’t in the Teen Wolf movie as a result of events behind the scenes, not the original script. Stiles would have been a part of the movie if Dylan O’Brien had opted to sign on. He, like Teen Wolf series cast member Arden Cho, turned down an appearance in the movie.
Cho, who starred as Kira for three seasons of Teen Wolf, was offered a role in the movie. She played a kitsune, and someone instrumental in originally taking down the nogitsune, so her appearing again would have made perfect sense. Cho was reportedly only offered about half of what her other female costars would have made, and without being paid the same as her costars, Cho felt she should turn down the Teen Wolf role.
O’Brien might not have been vocal in his reasons for not returning to the movie, but he was quick to share Cho’s statements about the movie and fan support of her decision on social media, leading fans to believe that Cho’s decision influenced his own.
Could Stiles Appear In A Future Teen Wolf Movie?
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Right now, there’s no official word on whether another Teen Wolf movie or even another series could take place. If it does, there is already a new teen werewolf in the form of Derek Hale’s son Eli to carry on the title. That would indicate that the bulk of the story would center on Eli’s generation with cameos from the Teen Wolf characters the audience knows. With Eli in the care of Scott McCall, Stiles’ best friend, though, that does open up the possibility for the character to appear in a future installment of the franchise. It would just be up to Dylan O’Brien to say yes. O’Brien’s involvement would likely depend on numerous factors, including his busy career.
MTV’s Teen Wolf and the Teen Wolf movie are both available to stream on Paramount+.