Warning: Teen Wolf: The Movie spoilers ahead. If you’ve been a Teen Wolf fan for the past decade, you may be screaming at your television and asking yourself: Does Derek die in Teen Wolf: The Movie or is there a way he’s still alive to fight another day in Beacon Hills?
Derek Hale (played by Tyler Hoechlin) was one of several returning characters in Teen Wolf: The Movie, a film revival of MTV’s Teen Wolf, which ran ran for six seasons from 2011 to 2017. The series, which was based on the 1985 movie of the same name starring Michael J. Fox, followed Scott McCall, a teenage boy from Beacon Hills, California, who is turned into a werewolf and starts to uncover the secret supernatural world lurking in his small town.
Paramount Plus announced in September 2021 that a Teen Wolf revival, titled Teen Wolf: The Movie, was in the works with creator Jeff Davis and and original cast members Tyler Posey, Tyler Hoechlin, Holland Roden, Colton Haynes, Shelley Hennig, Crystal Reed, Ryan Kelley and Dylan Sprayberry. “A full moon rises in Beacon Hills, and with it a terrifying evil has emerged. The wolves are howling once again, calling for the return of Banshees, Werecoyotes, Hellhounds, Kitsunes, and every other shapeshifter in the night. But only a werewolf like Scott McCall, no longer a teenager yet still an Alpha, can gather both new allies and reunite trusted friends to fight back against what could be the most powerful and deadliest enemy they’ve ever faced,” Paramount Plus’ description of the film reads.
But if you’ve seen the film, you may have questions about if a fan-favorite character met his end. So…does Derek die in Teen Wolf: The Movie? Read on for what we know about if Derek died in Teen Wolf: The Movie and what really happened in the end.
SPOILER: Does Derek die in Teen Wolf: The Movie?
Image: James Dimmock / Paramount+ / Courtesy Everett Collection.
Warning: Teen Wolf: The Movie spoiler ahead: Does Derek die in Teen Wolf: The Movie? The answer is yes. Derek Hale dies at the end of Teen Wolf: The Movie as Scott McCall and his pack fight the Nogitsune. During the scene, Jordan Parrish realizes that the only way to kill the Nogitsune is to use hellfire, but in order to do, someone must hold the Nogitsune back. In the end, Derek sacrifices himself to save Scott and his son, Eli Hale, who completes his werewolf transformation at the end of the movie, by throwing Scott out of the way and ordering Parrish to use hellfire on him and the Nogitsune. The fight ends with Derek burning up alongside the Nogitsune.
Teen Wolf creator Jeff Davis confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that Derek, in fact, died in Teen Wolf: The Movie. “You want to make big choices,” Davis said. “You don’t want to do a movie and say, ‘Well that could’ve just been another episode of the show.’ You want to make it feel grand.”
Davis also confirmed that he didn’t always plan for Derek to die in Teen Wolf: The Movie. When he thought of the idea, however, the first person he discussed it with was Tyler Hoechlin, who plays Derek and is also an executive produce on Teen Wolf: The Movie. “I didn’t want to do it without Tyler’s blessing, so I called him up and said, ‘What do you think if we gave Derek a big, heroic, sacrificial ending?’ And he was like, ‘I’m in. Let’s go for it,’” Davis said.
Still, Davis had his reservations with killing off Derek. “You second-guess yourself all the time,” Davis said. “You say, ‘Are we really doing this? Maybe we should plan something that’ll bring him back.’ But there’s also part of you that wants to commit.” As for if Derek could come back to life in a future Teen Wolf spinoff, Davis teased, “It’s Teen Wolf. People can always come back.”
Davis also explained to TV Insider how he decided to kill off Derek in Teen Wolf: The Movie. “Killing Derek wasn’t something that we came to lightly. It was a big decision, and I always feel that if you’re gonna do a movie as opposed to just another episode of TV or a reboot of a TV show, you need to make those big decisions and those big sacrifices,” Davis told TV Insider. “You need to make it monumental. But I wouldn’t have done it without Tyler Hoechlin being fully committed to it. So I called him one day when we knew we were getting closer to negotiations and that he was actually gonna do the movie and we were gonna find time in his schedule for it. I said, ‘What would you think of us giving Derek Hale a big sendoff?’ And he said, “Tell me what you’re thinking.’”
Davis also revealed that he considered rewriting the Teen Wolf: The Movie ending to not include Derek’s death. “Oh, yeah. I was on set thinking, “oh my God, did we make the right decision?” he told TV Insider. “Maybe I should do a rewrite. Maybe we should put something in the end. Maybe we should do this or maybe we should do that.” Davis also confirmed that he didn’t consider killing off any other characters because he wanted any death in Teen Wolf: The Movie to be “meaningful.” “You never really want to do it just for the shock of it,” he told TV Insider. “You want to sit down and say, is this a meaningful death? Is this something that, yes, a lot of the audience might hate it and be angry, but some of the audience might say, oh my God, that was perfect. You take that risk and you have to take that risk. Otherwise, what’s the point? I don’t want to play it safe.”
In an interview with TV Line, Davis also explained that he wanted Derek to die to have a “movie” moment for the film. “You really want to go for it in a movie, otherwise it’s just another episode of the show,” he said. “You want to take big risks and tell a big story.” He continued, “I wouldn’t have done it without Tyler’s blessing. I called him up one day and said, ‘Hey, what if we did a big ending for Derek — a sacrificial, heroic ending? Would you be into it?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, let’s talk about it.’ He was really involved in it, so it wasn’t just my choice, it was also partially his. So blame him, too!”
Hoechlin was one of the last returning cast members to join Teen Wolf: The Movie. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed Hoechlin had signed on to return for Teen Wolf: The Movie in May 2022, three months after Variety announced the returning cast in February 2022. Among those who returned were Tyler Posey as Scott McCall, Holland Roden as Lydia Martin, Shelley Hennig as Malia Tate, Crystal Reed as Allison Argent, Orny Adams as Coach Bobby Finstock, Linden Ashby as Sheriff Noah Stilinski, JR Bourne as Chris Argent, Seth Gilliam as Dr. Alan Deaton, Colton Haynes as Jackson Whittemore, Ryan Kelley as Deputy Jordan Parrish, Melissa Ponzio as Melissa McCall, and Dylan Sprayberry as Liam Dunbar.
Two original cast members who didn’t return for Teen Wolf: The Movie were Dylan O’Brien, who played Stiles Stilinski, and Arden Cho, who played Kira Yukimura. O’Brien confirmed he wouldn’t be returning in an interview with Variety in March 2022. “It was a difficult decision. A lot went into it,” he said at the time. “The show couldn’t be more dear to me. It was the first thing I ever did I and so many people there are extremely dear to me. It was something I was trying to make work but it all happened very fast. We didn’t really know that it was happening and they kind of just threw it at us a little bit, which is fine because we all love the show. We were trying to figure it out.” He continued, “Ultimately, I just decided it was left in a really good place for me and I still want to leave it there. I wish them well and I’m going to watch it the first night it comes out. I hope it fucking kicks ass, but I’m not going to be in it.”
Deadline reported in February 2022 that Cho, the only woman of color among the series’ four female regulars, declined to to return for Teen Wolf: The Movie after she was offer half of what was offered to her white counterparts. Cho confirmed that the salary leak did not come from her team in an interview with The Cut in 2022. “I think I was actually offered even less,” she said. “I probably would’ve never shared it.”
She continued, “I could probably, off the top of my head, think of over 10 Asian-American actors I know who were paid significantly less than their counterparts. Sometimes you don’t have a choice to say ‘no.’ Sometimes you just need it. You’ve got bills to pay.” She also told The Cut that she hoped her decision could lead to change for other actors. “I wasn’t saying ‘no’ necessarily for me or because I was angry,” Cho said. “I was saying ‘no’ because I hope that there will be more equality in the future.”
Teen Wolf: The Movie is available to stream on Paramount Plus. Here’s how to watch it for free.
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