Warning: Contains spoilers for Teen Wolf: The Movie
Teen Wolf: The Movie picks up the story more than a decade after Teen Wolf’s original ending, but the movie would have been much better as a show. Teen Wolf: The Movie brings Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) and most of his pack back together to take on the Nogitsune (Aaron Hendry) once more. Out for revenge, the Nogitsune instigated Allison Argent’s (Crystal Reed) resurrection to tear the pack apart and kill Scott, only to be thwarted by the pack’s belief in one another. Teen Wolf: The Movie’s ending is both tragic and hopeful, as Scott and Allison get a second chance at love, and the next generation of the Hale family is set to take center stage.
Teen Wolf: The Movie packs a lot of action into its nearly two-and-a-half-hour runtime, and yet it doesn’t feel like enough. The Nogitsune’s entire plan of attack is executed and thwarted within the story, and while the ending is well-rounded, the entirety of the film itself leaves a lot of content uncovered. Though the concept of a Teen Wolf revival years after the show ended was a good idea, as it gives audiences the chance to reconnect with their favorite characters and see where they ended up as adults, Teen Wolf: The Movie feels lacking in its execution, and this is largely due to its storytelling format.
A Movie Wasn't Enough For Teen Wolf's Big Cast
Teen Wolf: The Movie has a big cast, even though it’s missing a few key members – Dylan O’Brien’s Stiles and Arden Cho’s Kira Yukimura were missed, especially. And yet, while the show was always able to balance its large cast of characters well enough to give them each their own development arcs and deepen their relationships with one another, Teen Wolf: The Movie doesn’t get the chance to focus on its characters enough. If the Teen Wolf revival had been a show, or even just a miniseries, it would have given the writers more time to balance the Nogitsune’s plot with expanding on the characters’ current lives and relationships.
Teen Wolf: The Movie simply had too big of a supernatural plot to deal with. Aside from Scott and Allison, Lydia (Holland Roden), and Derek (Tyler Hoechlin), most of the cast’s appearances feel more like cameos than anything else. Liam (Dylan Sprayberry) and Mason (Khylin Rhambo), supposed best friends, barely interacted. Malia (Shelley Hennig) was reduced to Parrish’s (Ryan Kelley) love interest with no explanation given as to how they got together. Jackson (Colton Haynes) merely returned to show off his snarky personality. These characters deserved more development, and the audience deserved more time with them, something that a TV show format would have been able to provide.
The Teen Wolf Mythology Is Wasted In A Movie Format
One of Teen Wolf’s strengths as a TV series was how it built up its supernatural mysteries. The characters always needed time to get acquainted with new mythology, and needed additional time to fix their inevitable mistakes when trying to beat their extraordinary adversaries. The stories were well-structured, and easy to follow, and gave the writers time to expand their supernatural world-building in Teen Wolf. In Teen Wolf: The Movie, however, the narrative has to use the return of the Nogitsune as an excuse, banking on the audience’s prior knowledge of the creature to rush through its supernatural story beats as necessitated by the Teen Wolf revival’s movie format.
If the Teen Wolf revival had been a series instead of a movie, it would have given the writers the chance to explore a mythology that wasn’t already well-known and previously defeated. Though the Nogitsune’s quest for revenge is plausible, and its tricky plan fits with its usual MO, the villain’s story and powers had been thoroughly explored in Teen Wolf season 3. Because of this, the Nogitsune’s story in Teen Wolf: The Movie is too predictable and familiar, and the revival might have been better served by introducing an entirely new supernatural threat.
The Teen Wolf Movie Created Too Many Plot Holes & Lingering Questions
Teen Wolf: The Movie was clearly restricted by its runtime. It needed to introduce new characters, reacquaint the audience with old ones, tell a complete story, and deal with romance, friendships, and a tragic character death in only two-and-a-half hours. It’s no surprise that some things were left by the wayside, and yet these missing elements are detrimental to the experience of the Teen Wolf revival as a whole. If there’s no sequel, the audience might never know who Eli Hale’s (Vince Mattis) mother is, how Liam and Hikari (Amy Workman) met, how Scott knew that he could “borrow” Hikari’s Kitsune spirit, the specifics of Allison’s resurrection, or the details of Stiles and Lydia’s breakup.
A Teen Wolf revival TV series would have allowed time for all these questions, and more, to be answered. Currently, Teen Wolf: The Movie is complete but feels incomplete, like it’s merely the start of a bigger story, as opposed to an entire story on its own. While this is possibly by design to set up a movie sequel, or even a sequel series, it’s a shame, because chances are that any new Teen Wolf project will focus on a new generation, and the old guard will be left behind. Teen Wolf: The Movie is missing the magic that made its predecessor so watchable, and much of that is down to its storytelling medium.