Rest in peace, Derek Hale. Derek made the ultimate sacrifice at the end of Teen Wolf: The Movie. The gang had to go head-to-head with the Nogitsune, and the only way to take down the monster for good was with Parrish’s hellfire. Derek looked at his son, Eli, and told Scott that Eli was part of his pack now. Derek then pushed Scott out of the way and urged Parrish to bring the hellfire.
Parrish ignited the hellfire and the Nogitsune caught on fire, as well as Derek. Derek burned up and died alongside the Nogitsune. Teen Wolf fans know all too well what it’s like to lose a fan-favorite character. HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with creator Jeff Davis about the decision to kill off Derek (seriously, someone needs to call Stiles). Was that the plan from the beginning?
“No. Well, actually, when I started writing the script, yes. We had numerous iterations of the outline because we didn’t know who was going to be in it,” Jeff explained. “There were storylines being thrown around, being thrown out, new ones being thought up. But once we landed on most of the cast, and once [Tyler] Hoechlin had committed and said, ‘Yeah, I’ll work around my Superman schedule,’ which took plenty of super heroics, trust me. I said to him, ‘Would you be up for a big heroic sendoff?’ And he said, ‘What do you have in mind?’ And I said, ‘Let’s talk about it.’ I wouldn’t have done it without his blessing, without his involvement. But once we had that, the rest of the story sort of fell into place. I knew for a long time that I wanted Allison to come back, but how she came back wasn’t quite clear until we really decided on, okay, if we’re revisiting the storyline from season 3B, do we bring back the villain of season 3B as well?”
In the final moments of the film, Scott and Allison hinted at possibly adopting Eli now that he’s an orphan. When asked if they do adopt Derek’s son in the future, Jeff said, “They talk about it, yes.” However, he wouldn’t say anything definitive about that plot point. “Not yet,” Jeff added. As for the identity of Eli’s mom, Jeff said, “Oh, that’s left unsaid.” But the creator does know who it is.
After being killed off the show in season 3, Crystal Reed made her return as Allison Argent. Scott was able to bring Allison back to life for good with a ritual, and they finally get to spend the rest of their lives together. Jeff stressed that bringing Allison back into the fold always meant that Scott was going to get his happy ending.
“If we were going to bring her back, she was back,” Jeff said. “There are some stories that do that. It’s a wish-fulfillment story where you have to realize that the wish wasn’t real. It’s very much Wonder Woman 1984 I think, but in Teen Wolf when we grant a wish, I want the characters to keep it.”
One surprising romance in Teen Wolf: The Movie was between Parrish and Malia. “I liked the idea of Malia having returned to Beacon Hills, Parrish being there, and them sort of finding each other out of convenience,” Jeff told HollywoodLife. “That relationship starts as a relationship of convenience and then turns into something more real where they find that connection because they’re both animals on the inside. One’s a coyote, one’s a hellhound. I mean, there’s a spark there. We were hoping it would work out because in real life, Shelley [Hennig] and Ryan [Kelley] are like brother and sister. Having them kiss on screen was very weird for everyone, actors included, but they’re actors.”
There are still plenty of stories to tell in the Teen Wolf universe. Jeff hasn’t ruled out continuing Teen Wolf in the future.
“For some reason, I don’t love really neat wrap-ups where everyone lives happily ever after. Life’s messy and complicated, so I like to leave things more open-ended. I like the idea that anything can happen now, that it’s a whole new paradigm that Scott has his new pack with Eli and with Allison. What does that world look like now? I don’t know yet,” he said. Teen Wolf: The Movie is now streaming on Paramount+.