Warning: This article contains spoilers for Teen Wolf: The Movie
From alpha to omega.
Teen Wolf: The Movie marked the much-anticipated return of the MTV series more than five years after it went off the air. But unfortunately, not every member of the pack survived the reunion.
While many characters experienced temporary fake out death scenes in the Paramount+ movie, a few really are dead and buried—the most notable, of course, being Tyler Hoechlin's Derek. The death scene hit particularly hard for the actor behind the series' main character, Scott.
"It's super emotional. Tyler Hoechlin is somebody that I really love and as much as I am an actor and I know that there's separateness from our characters and our human selves, it's emotional reading that," Tyler Posey exclusively told E! News ahead of the Jan. 26 premiere. "Plus, I've grown to love Derek over the years. It redeemed Derek from any bad quality, any grumpy cat quality that he had over the past 12 years."
But the actor noted it was a story decision that made a lot of sense practically.
"I think it's something that's necessary for us to have in terms of storytelling," he continued. "We as humans deal with loss of a loved one constantly, and the fans have dealt with that over the years. It's another way that we can be relatable to the fans and to anybody watching. I think it's beautiful the way that we did it. He turns into a true alpha right before he dies, his eyes glow red and it's just chills."
While Posey and Hoechlin shared the screen together often during Teen Wolf's six season run from 2011 to 2017, their co-star Holland Roden had a slightly different perspective on the latter's demise.
"It's like when a friend of a friend passes away and you really feel for the friend, but even the few interactions we had in Beacon Hills [on the] OG show, we really didn't know each other. It was like our friends knew each other," the actress, who plays Lydia, explained candidly. "So, when he passes, it's something that's obviously important to Beacon Hills and what he's done to keep Beacon Hills safe, so I think there's that connection. But there's not a guttural, personal connection [for Lydia], like for instance, [the death of] Allison."
However, Teen Wolf: The Movie reunited Lydia and Allison, as Crystal Reed returned nearly a decade after leaving the series in season three. And with a character who had previously been considered dead for good, she had a unique take on what the future could possibly hold for Derek, since she suffered a similar fate herself. As Reed put it, "Turns out, [in] Teen Wolf land, no one is really dead."
Meanwhile, Shelley Hennig, who plays Malia, told E! News what excited her about getting the chance to return for the full-length film.
"The fans wanted season seven, we knew we weren't able to do it, but let's give them a very long movie. So, we have a 2.5-hour movie that we're so excited to see," she shared. "There were so many different pairings that had never really been on the show at the same time, so that was really exciting and really cool."
But while Derek's death does seem somewhat final, Posey acknowledged that the ending did leave an opening for more potential stories out of Beacon Hills. He shared, "Hopefully it's not a conclusion, hopefully it opens up the story to keep going more."
"I want to see them handle mundane sort of adult scenarios. Not mundane, just real heavy stuff that we now experience as adults," Posey revealed. "I think it would be really cool for the fans, mostly, to see us sort of run parallel with their lives and still be a very relatable subject matter."
See how it all goes down in Teen Wolf: The Movie, now streaming on Paramount+.