Teen Wolf Trailer Breakdown: The Pack Is Back In A Compelling Continuation Of The Show's Best Plotline
Guess who's back, back again? "Teen Wolf" is back, and you should definitely tell your friends because there is a lot to be excited about. The beloved MTV series is getting the movie treatment with "Teen Wolf: The Movie" debuting in January, and the first trailer gives us the full scope of what we can expect from this nostalgia-heavy supernatural reboot.
First off, what exactly brings us back to Beacon Hills fifteen years after the final season of "Teen Wolf"? It appears that the Oni — the neutral demon warriors from season 3 of the show — have returned to the northern California town, and no one knows why. Naturally, this brings our favorite alpha, Tyler Posey's Scott McCall, back into town, and he summons the majority of supernatural crew from the days of yore to reunite and fight.
So, who exactly are we talking about here? By the looks of the trailer, it's a great group. Dr. Alan Deaton, Scott's former druid mentor played by Seth Gilliam, is still part of the mix, alongside several great adult characters including Sheriff Stilinski (Linden Ashby), Melissa McCall (Melissa Ponzio), Chris Argent (JR Bourne), Peter Hale (Ian Bohan), and even the hilarious Coach Finstock (Orny Adams). As for the pack itself, Holland Roden's Lydia, Colton Haynes' Jackson, Tyler Hoechlin's Derek, and Shelley Hennig's Malia all return to face evil together once more despite everything they have going on in their own lives. The trailer shows a very busy Lydia in a seemingly high-powered job while Derek is doing his best to train his teenage son, Eli (Vince Mattis), to harness his own werewolf powers.
The return of Argent?
The "Teen Wolf" movie trailer also shows the return of Crystal Reed's Allison, Scott's original love interest who died in season 3 of the show. At first, the pack starts seeing visions of her, but then, she is seemingly there for real, which doesn't seem possible. In the series, Allison was stabbed to death by one of the Oni, who were being controlled by the Nogitsune — an entity that possesses a body for the sole purpose of causing chaos — who later possessed Dylan O'Brien's beloved character, Stiles.
Speaking of which, Deaton reveals during the trailer that "the Nogitsune has come to play a new game," and that implies that the entity is potentially possessing Allison now. She doesn't even recall her relationship with Scott, or, shockingly enough, his identity at all, as seen in a harrowing moment during the trailer. It remains to be seen whether or not there's a way for her to actually come back to life as her true self, but the movie will most likely give us that answer one way or the other.
The trailer also confirms that Kira, Arden Cho's character who was best known for her role in the pack as the kitsune, and O'Brien's Stiles, will not be returning for the film. That said, there is another character, Hikari Zhang, who may be filling that kitsune role. We just don't know yet, but we do see the character, played by Amy Lin Workman, with some similar samurai skills in the trailer.
Back to the pack
The trailer concludes by showing Scott taking a stand as an alpha once more, backed by a pack full of supernatural entities at the top of their game. There are several new faces this time around, but the majority of the key players have returned to fight another battle, which sets this film up for success. Now, we can only hope that it succeeds with the compelling continuation of the storyline it presents us.
It was a smart move to return to the antagonists of season 3, as some would argue this was the series' best season. It's a crowd pleaser, and though the most memorable moments from it involve Stiles, Allison's death completely rocked fans in a way that guarantees their interest with this plotline. The trailer offers lots of tantalizing mysteries to get fans of the series invested — is Allison back from the dead, or some sort of imposter? Who's controlling the Oni? What is the ultimate goal?
Alongside our main pack members, Dylan Sprayberry, Khylin Rhambo, and Ryan Kelley return to reprise their roles from the original series. The MTV show's original director Russell Mulvahey also returned to direct the movie from a script by series creator Jeff Davis, who is also the series creator of "Criminal Minds" and the upcoming "Teen Wolf" spin-off series, "Wolf Pack."
"Teen Wolf: The Movie" will be available to stream on Paramount+ on January 26, 2023.