Teen Wolf: The Movie spoilers below.
Teen Wolf: The Movie is bringing everyone back.
Scott (Tyler Posey) without question. Derek Hale (Tyler Hoechlin), Lydia Martin (Holland Roden), Liam Dunbar (Dylan Sprayberry). Heck, even Allison Argent (Crystal Reed) crawled her way back from the grave just to be in this revival.
Okay, she didn't exactly crawl out from the Earth, Resurrection Buffy-style, so much as rematerialise naked on a tree stump. Again think Angel, season three of Buffy, except without all the shivering and trauma.
No. Allison was depicted more as pure being than a shell-shocked demon for obvious reasons, but the digression here is real. The fact is everyone came back, except of course Stiles.
This is hardly a surprise. We already knew that Dylan O'Brien would not be reprising his role for the movie and no, there's no controversy behind it, no villain to slay. It was simply a scheduling conflict.
As O'Brien told Variety: "It was something I was trying to make work but it all happened very fast. We didn't really know that it was happening and they kind of just threw it at us a little bit, which is fine because we all love the show. We were trying to figure it out.
"Ultimately, I just decided it was left in a really good place for me and I still want to leave it there. I wish them well and I'm going to watch it the first night it comes out. I hope it fucking kicks ass, but I'm not going to be in it."
Boo. We want Stiles. Bring back Stiles… and with that mini tantrum out of our systems, we are pleased to report that O'Brien's claim that his character wouldn't be in the movie isn't entirely true.
Remember that storyline where everyone forgot Stiles existed? Well, there's no danger of that here. The show is steeped in the essence of Stiles, and we couldn't be more pleased.
Which begs the question, what actually happened to Stiles in Teen Wolf: The Movie?
He and Scott were literally bro-mates. The end of their high school career in the final season literally ended with the two of them sharing how much each one meant to the other.
Fast-forward fifteen years and Scott finds himself in the midst of a pretty exceptional Teen-Wolf crisis involving his resurrected first love... and Stiles is nowhere to be seen?
It hardly makes sense. Jackson freaking Whittmore rallied to Scott AND Lydia's side, but no Stiles? What's his excuse?
None is officially made clear, but it's very much implied it has something to do with Lydia.
What happened to Stiles in Teen Wolf: The Movie
During the final season of Teen Wolf, Stiles left Beacon Hills to enrol in the FBI programme at George Washington University.
Apparently, his chosen career path paved the way for Stilinski's success, or so it is implied. When the movie picks up, it is his father Sheriff Noah Stilinski (Linden Ashby) that makes the first reference to him.
While investigating a burn site in the woods by a serial arsonist, Stilinski asks his advisor, Derek, (I know, just roll with it) if it's serious enough to call in the FBI, to which he responds by saying: "Maybe you should be calling your son."
Stilinski replies with: "Trust me, right now Stiles has his own fires to put out. I think we can handle one arsonist."
It's a short reference to the beloved character – and admittedly, the characters aren't giving much away – but there are still tidbits to be inferred.
For instance, the fact that Derek is keen to call on Stiles' expertise suggests that he is succeeding professionally, or at the very least was, because Stilinski's comment can be taken multiple ways.
It could be that Stiles' work is very demanding and taking up much of his time, or that he is contending with some serious problems. Whether it's work-related or personal, it's not made clear. But as the story unfolds, it seems more likely that the fires ravaging his life are attacking his love life, not work.
Devastating news, and if you need a minute to collect your thoughts, no-one will judge. Lydia and Stiles were always end goals.
Fans shipped them harder than any of Scott's relationships including Allison (sorry, Scallison) but something between them seems to have soured during this decade-and-a-half time jump.
The first clue was when Lydia returned to Beacon Hills to help Scott with Jackson of all people as her travelling companion, not Stiles. When asked why she no longer screams like a Banshee Lydia is reluctant to explain, but Jackson is quick to leap in to fill in the blanks.
"Stiles,' he says with an air of boredom. "Obviously it has something to do with Stiles."
The conversation quickly turns to Scott querying why Jackson is here and just like that the clue of Stiles' whereabouts is absorbed into the wider plot.
From Scott and Chris Argent's lack of surprise or response, it can be deduced that they already knew about the rift that exists between Stiles and Lydia and respectfully prefer not to probe deeper.
Probe, guys. People need answers!
It is the Nogitsune who finally drags the truth into the open.
In the final act, when the Nogitsune has Lydia and Jackson within his grips, he breaks Lydia down until she finally admits why she's in such extreme heartbreak. The kind of wounded pain the Nogitsune has been salivating over, waiting to feed on.
She tells him (and a very patient audience) that she left Stiles after a haunting premonition foreshadowed his death.
In this recurring dream vision, she and Stiles were in a car accident and both were thrown from the car. While she made it out of the wreck with her life, Stiles did not.
To prevent the vision from materialising she broke up with Stiles and left, reasoning that if she was never in the car with him his fate would be different.
A solid plan, at least by Teen Wolf measures.
We clearly know why in her mind she had to leave. What doesn't add up is why didn't Stiles just show up anyway? Even just for Scott? That guy would live and die for his friends, literally, and if Lydia kept the secret of their split close to the chest, as can be presumed, then wouldn't Scott have called his best friend to fill him in on the Allison detail?
No rift between Scott and Stiles is mentioned, so we're going to go ahead and assume that their relationship is still intact lest we implode from that heartbreak.
It therefore seems likely that if Stiles had discovered Scott's predicament, he would have been there in a heartbeat. Sadly he is not, and that's all the explanation Teen Wolf: The Movie creator Jeff Davis is willing to give thus far.
Let's hope there is more from this continuation, a Teen Wolf: The Movie two? A spinoff series? One that will provide sufficient answers – along with an appearance or two from O'Brien's Stiles.
Teen Wolf: The Movie is released on Paramount+ in the US on January 26 and in the UK on January 27.
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