Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Paramount+
It’s probably not a huge surprise to most people that Teen Wolf: The Movie has received a mixed reception at best. A direct sequel to MTV’s TV series, which ran from 2011-2017, the Paramount+ film was probably doomed from the moment that Dylan O’Brien opted not to return as Stiles, arguably the show’s most popular character. (Arden Cho, who played Kira, also declined to reprise her role after she was reportedly offered a significantly lesser salary than her co-stars.)
There are a few things to enjoy about the movie, particularly if you’re a Scott (Tyler Posey) and Allison (Crystal Reed) shipper. And there are a lot of other things to be pissed about. There are plot holes galore, bizarre new couple pairings that nobody asked for, and, as the cherry on top, a devastating character death at the very end that feels like it was added on purely for shock value. But Teen Wolf: The Movie’s biggest crime is destroying the relationship between Stiles and Lydia (Holland Roden).
Stiles and Lydia, widely dubbed “Stydia” by fans, were a ship that was literally years and years in the making. It started off as incredibly one-sided at first. Fans will remember Stiles awkwardly trying to say “hi” to her, as she brushed her way past him in the pilot episode, way back in 2011: “Hey, Lydia! You look…like you’re about to ignore me.”