Tyler Posey may not be a teen or a wolf, but his life has been running parallel to Scott McCall's ever since he first slipped into the character's maroon No. 11 lacrosse jersey over a decade ago.
"Scott and I have always sort of had a similar trajectory ever since the show started, because in the first episode, he got bit by a werewolf, his life changed," Posey told Insider. "I got 'Teen Wolf' and my life changed in a different way, but we were still sort of on the same wavelength."
Jeff Davis' "Teen Wolf" had all the makings of success when it premiered in June 2011: an altruistic protagonist navigating his teen years under abnormal circumstances, a sarcastic but extremely lovable sidekick (Dylan O'Brien's Stiles Stilinski), high-school romances, and an abundance of supernatural happenings in a time when vampires, werewolves, and other dangerous, but attractive creatures were plentiful in pop culture (see: "Supernatural," "True Blood," "The Vampire Diaries," and of course, "Twilight").
The series turned Posey from a child actor to a heartthrob, the kind of star whose face would be on billboards in Times Square and whose presence would attract hundreds of fans at San Diego Comic-Con.
It was on "Teen Wolf" that Posey embraced the responsibility of leading a TV show, as seasons passed and various cast members exited the show and new actors entered the fold.
And while Scott was becoming a true alpha, trying to keep his friends and family alive in Beacon Hills, Posey was witnessing the deaths of loved ones in real life.
His mom, Cyndi Garcia, died of breast cancer at age 55 in 2014. Posey was 23 at the time and the season five premiere of "Teen Wolf" was dedicated to her.
"I dealt with death at an early age, and we were both distracted by Beacon Hills," Posey says of the parallel between himself and his character. "I was working on Beacon Hills, he was living in Beacon Hills. And it didn't take until 'Teen Wolf' stopped for me to really digest everything that had been happening in my life for the past 20 years, grieve, learn how to mourn, relive everything, and understand who I am as a person now."
"He finally had time to just sit with his life and really, for the first time, acknowledge what happened and accept and cope," the actor adds. "He and I are in a very similar situation."
Scott finds himself on a similar life path to Posey at the start of "Teen Wolf: The Movie," which picks up approximately 15 years later and landed on Paramount+ on Thursday.
Now in his early 30s (like Posey in real life) and working as a vet in LA, Scott is feeling wistful and lonely, having left Beacon Hills behind a while ago to get eliminate the distraction of "trying to save everybody and be the hero," Posey explains.
"He and I are very similar in that sense that we've got trauma, but we're very much settled into who we are as a person."
"Teen Wolf: The Movie" brings back a multitude of characters from the original show as Scott and his pack team up to defeat a menacing threat in Beacon Hills, but many fans believe the movie shouldn't have moved forward without Stiles. Posey, however, disagrees, pointing out that O'Brien had a decreased presence on the final season due to scheduling conflicts with "The Maze Runner: The Death Cure." (O'Brien even told Entertainment Tonight at the time that he wasn't contractually obligated to appear at all in season six.)
"The last season and a half, I think, he wasn't on the show, so I was used to carrying the weight of the show on my shoulders, which is something I always wanted anyway," Posey says. "I always wanted to be the leader and bear that weight and responsibility of keeping the morale up and getting good work in, and still having it be this really fun working atmosphere."
"So it wasn't shocking, it wasn't too different, but it's always nice to have Stiles there with me," he adds. "He still lives on in all of our hearts and he helped sort of shape this show into what it is."
Although O'Brien isn't in "Teen Wolf: The Movie," Stiles' Jeep is back and ever-present in the story. "Memories just flood back" when Posey recalls filming with O'Brien in Stiles' beloved vehicle.
"Dylan learned how to drive a stick with that Jeep, and that Jeep is three times older than we are," he says. "So it was frightening for the both of us to be inside that Jeep under his control, which he didn't have much of."
"There were moments where we would have to start on a hill and they would say action and he would hit the gas, but we would be rolling backward and we'd both scream and he'd slam on the brakes and they'd go 'cut' and we're like, 'We're gonna die in this thing!'" Posey continues. "So, the Jeep holds a lot of really great memories of growing up and really fun moments that I loved to share with Dylan."
He still lives on in all of our hearts and he helped sort of shape this show into what it is.Tyler Posey on Dylan O'Brien's absence in "Teen Wolf: The Movie."
Crystal Reed however is back, despite her character Allison Argent getting killed off during the season three finale of "Teen Wolf."
Posey says that he and Reed connected on a different, more spiritual level as adults because of their similar routines, like morning meditations.
"Everything is just calmer," he says. "I'm a little more calculated. I'm more present with every moment."
As a producer on the movie, Posey says he was able to "step up without overstepping my boundaries and give some advice or give my two cents."
"I'm just another voice of reason in the madness of the 'Teen Wolf' filming world," he says, adding that he came to work with a collaborative attitude. He even assumed the position of a real-life mentor to Vince Mattis, who plays Eli, the 15-year-old son of Derek Hale (Tyler Hoechlin).
"I really took Vince under my wing, and he and I had such a good time," Posey says, adding, "He's still newer in this industry and he reminded me of myself."
Posey especially wanted Mattis to understand that — even though the show is a huge deal to its fans — the cast is still having fun and not taking themselves too seriously. "I wanted to show him that like, none of us are egocentric, you know?"
With a sequel movie comes the inevitable question, "Will there be even more?" If it's up to Posey, there will be.
"I hope there's more 'Teen Wolf,'" Posey reiterates. "I really do. I want to do it justice. I want to do the fans justice and give them exactly what they want and keep it going and be really excited about the future for it, you know? I want that role. If it means me protesting to Paramount+ that I want the show to keep going, then so be it."
But even if Posey isn't ready to say goodbye to Scott just yet, not every character will live on to see another "Teen Wolf" spin-off — something the actor expects fans to understand at this point as they've always "had to deal with a lot of people exiting the show and a lot of loved characters dying."
"Growing up, you, me, most of the fans I'm sure have dealt with somebody close dying. I think it's something that we need to portray," he explains, adding, "It's something that I hold personal to me cause I've dealt with the death of a loved one, and I love being able to portray that on-screen and having people relate to it. It's just another means for us to make the world seem less scary and not as lonely. We're going through the same stuff that other people are going through."
"But also, 'Teen Wolf' has been known to bring every single person back from the dead, so it's never finite."
