Paramount+ has apparently submitted Teen Wolf: The Movie for Emmy consideration for outstanding television movie according to Variety. Not only that, they submitted Tyler Posey for lead actor in a limited or anthology series or movie, Russell Mulcahy for directing; Jeff Davis, Will Wallace, Joseph P. Genier, and Mulcahy for writing; Chris Gallaher, Adrien Morot, Erik Porn, Hailey Trifiro, Kyle Yaklin for prosthetic makeup, and “Lemon” by Tyler Posey for original music and lyrics.
And it’s utter bullshit.
Which, a side note, no shade to the prosthetics and makeup department. You did your job and I salute you. Everything else though has me scratching my head and going, “Am I being gaslit?!”
It has been months since the release of Teen Wolf: The Movie. And the rage that I feel for this movie still burns bright. And this isn’t coming from a casual fan. Teen Wolf as a whole really helped me out when I was going through it in life and I even have a tattoo on my wrist of a triskelion with a wolf paw. So when I tell you about my rage when it comes to this shit show of a movie being considered for the Emmys I want you to understand where it comes from. Because from where I’m sitting Teen Wolf: The Movie was a disaster that undermined its fans and disrespected its characters.
Teen Wolf: The Movie felt more like a vanity project than anything where Jeff Davis could revisit the “good ol’ days” without realizing that’s why they’re called that. Because they’re in the past. They’re done for. And I know Hollywood is in a revival/sequel/adaptation craze but for fucks sake if you’re going to bring back something like Teen Wolf, the least you could do is not sweep everything you did in the show under the rug and be like, “Ooops. That never happened. Let me tell you the tea of what we’re gonna do, the characters we’re gonna kill, and how we’re not going to pay Arden Cho a fair wage to return so we’ll just include another Asian actress cuz no one will notice. Right?”* No. We noticed.
*Also, note. Teen Wolf didn’t say this. But this is what it felt like.
Writing-wise, Teen Wolf: The Movie really went and broke up Scott and Malia after all that happened on the show just to get Scott back together will Allison who still has the mind of a teenager while Scott is in his 30s. And since Dylan O’Brien is booked and busy, and he understands why the good ol’ days should stay in the past, they gave some half-assed excuse as to why Stydia was broken up. But the real fuck you to fans is what Teen Wolf: The Movie did to Derek Hale, played by Tyler Hoechlin, and his son Eli Hale. They did something so heinous that immediately after the movie was released, the fandom raged and fix-it fic after fix-it fics started popping up online because fans refused to accept this disrespect.
This movie lured us into a false sense of security when it came to Derek. He was happy. He had a home, a kid, and was a big ol’ grump. But it looked like he grew, he changed, and became a man that his family would be proud of. And his kid…DEAR LORD HIS KID! With the sass, moles, hair, love for plaid, and stealing the Jeep, he was everything we loved about Stiles but with a twist of being a werewolf. And it worked, ok?! It’s what he deserved after the continuous pain the show put Derek in. Then the movie decided to kill him by burning him to ash in front of his son, traumatizing the poor kid in a similar manner that Derek himself was traumatized since his family was also burned alive.
Let’s not forget that voiceover montage thing the movie did about Derek sacrificing himself and getting up over and over again. Fuck that. I don’t want that. You didn’t set out to prove that there are those in life that continue getting up over and over despite what the world throws at you. What you did go out and prove is someone like Derek Hale was never going to end up happy and that his son would live a lonely life without the guidance, reassurance, and love of his pack. And no, having Scott teach Eli stuff doesn’t count. He’s a terrible Alpha. I said what I said and it’s sus that Eli is going to be around Allison aka someone he just watched almost kill his dad and whose family obliterated the Hale line.
So, no. Teen Wolf: The Movie should not be in the run for Emmy consideration. If anything, fanfic writers and their fix-it fics should be considered. They’re the real heroes who have given us a canon where Derek Hale lives, where he heals from his trauma, and lives a life his family would be proud of. A life where his kid doesn’t grow up without that familial guidance and traditions that come with being a werewolf and where the cycle of Hale’s never being happy, healthy, and alive is broken. Because after all this time, we just want these characters to be happy. That’s not too much to ask for, right?
