‘Teen Wolf’ Movie Ending Explained: [SPOILER] Dies Because MTV Hates Us, Apparently

Teen Wolf: The Movie is now streaming on Paramount+, and while it’s fun to be back in Beacon Hills, fans are not going to be happy with the Teen Wolf movie ending.

Jeff Davis, who created the MTV Teen Wolf series and wrote this new movie, has never shied away from killing off his main characters. Indeed, the controversial decision to kill off Crystal Reed’s character Allison—who was the love interest for the protagonist Scott (Tyler Posey)—in Season 3 caused many fans to quit the show for good. Even though Allison is back in the Teen Wolf movie, which takes place 13 years after the events of the final season, that doesn’t mean your favorite characters are safe from Davis’s metaphorical sword.

In case it’s not bad enough that Dylan O’Brien’s Stiles didn’t come back for the movie, Teen Wolf The Movie kills off a beloved fan-favorite. Read on to find out how it happens.

Warning: Major Teen Wolf: The Movie spoilers ahead. 

Who dies in the Teen Wolf movie?

Derek. I know. I know. Derek Hale, the brooding once-alpha werewolf played by Tyler Hoechlin, dies in Teen Wolf: The Movie. And based on the funeral they have for him at the end of the movie, he’s, like, dead-dead. After an entire Teen Wolf movie without any Stiles, this one is a real slap in the face to Sterek shippers. I knew Jeff Davis was mean, but I didn’t think he was this mean.

How does Derek die in Teen Wolf: The Movie?

Here’s how it happens: First the movie fakes out audiences by almost killing Derek several times, and then revealing he’s still alive. He gets stabbed in the throat by Allison (long story) and it seems like he’s a goner… but then he’s fine. He gets sent to another dimension and offers last words to his son—”Remember who you are,”—but then, again, he’s fine. Phew! Derek is going to be fine, right?

Wrong. The third time is the charm, as they say. With a little encouragement from his dad, Derek’s 15-year-old son Eli (don’t even get me started on that!) finally transforms into the werewolf he was born to be. Father and son fight the evil demon Nogitsune side-by-side, along with Scott. Eli gets thrown to the side, and Derek and Scott struggle to contain the demon. They have to kill the demon somehow, and one easy way would be to have Jordan Parrish, their resident hellhound, light the demon on fire. But someone has to hold the demon while they burn him. (Do they? Could he not have just dodged out of the way?)

Derek looks at his son and realizes someone needs to make the sacrifice play. It can’t be Scott, because Scott is the “alpha,” which, apparently, is more important to Derek than making sure his son has a father. Derek pushes Scott to safety, grips the demon securely, and tells Jordan, “Parrish, light this fucker up.”

Parrish does, and both Derek and the demon burn to a crisp in a fiery ball of destruction. And just in case you thought there might be a chance that Derek survived that encounter, Davis literally hammers the nail in Derek’s coffin by staging a funeral scene for the former alpha werewolf. (Which, I might add, Stiles does not show up for. In what universe would Stiles not attend Derek’s funeral?!) Scott says some words about found family, which is nice, but it feels hollow in light of the fact that Derek definitely did not have to die. There are like, a million other ways they could have killed that demon! Has anyone ever heard of rope? Or, like, dodging?

So… I guess Scott is just going to raise Eli now? I don’t know man, this is an absolute mess. The fact that Stiles wasn’t there already makes this movie not canon, but killing Derek? No. I’m sorry, but Derek Hale lives happily ever after, in my mind.

What is the Teen Wolf: The Movie ending explained?

After the funeral scene, in which Sheriff Stilinski gives Eli Stiles’ old Jeep; and after the tear-jerking montage scene of Derek Hale, which I refuse to acknowledge because Derek definitely did not die; the movie ends on a final, mysterious note: Adrian Harris, the chemistry teacher who was in cahoots with the evil demons, is driven by the authorities to the Eichen House.

What is the Eichen House in Teen Wolf?

In case you forgot, the Eichen House is a mental health facility and former war hospital in Beacon Hills, that doubles as a prison ward for supernatural beings, guarded by a hellhound. Adrian is informed by a man in a suit that he will be “very comfortable” at the Eichen House, while Adrian screams about the teenagers being werewolves.

“Trust me, we’ve heard plenty of stories about teenage werewolves,” the man replies. “There’s always a new one.”

Adrian is dragged off. In the final shot of the movie, Eli—the new teen wolf—walks in slow-mo onto a cliff, overlooking Beacon Hills, while a full moon shines down. Eli’s eyes glow werewolf-yellow, and the movie ends.

Does this mean we’re going to get more Teen Wolf content starring Eli? God, I hope not. Hasn’t Jeff Davis made us suffer enough?