Why Stiles Was Barely In Season 6

Stiles (Dylan O’Brien) was barely in Teen Wolf‘ season 6, leading some viewers to wonder why the fan-favorite character was absent for the final season. The MTV teen-horror drama, which was based on the original 1985 movie that starred Michael J. Fox, ran for six years before it wrapped up. Many fans were surprised by the series’ ending, given there was no prior indication that the end was coming, and the creators showed no indication that they might have been looking to end the story of the gang from Beacon Hills. Even though the show ended, fans and long-time viewers were still excited for what was coming in the future for the main characters, especially the two leads of the show Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) and Stiles Stilinski.

While Scott was the titular character of Teen Wolf, Stiles was just as important to the narrative of the show. As the son of Sheriff Noah Stilinski (Linden Ashby), O’Brien’s character was the peppier and more adventurous of the two. His curious nature often resulted in unforeseen circumstances that played an important role in the plot. In Teen Wolf season 1, Stiles decided to seek out to see a dead body in the woods because he thought it would be fun, which led to Scott being bitten by a werewolf. Unlike Scott, Stiles never got any super-abilities; despite this, he was an indispensable member of their growing pack with his detective skills. So it was disappointing for a lot of fans when the character was barely in Teen Wolf season 6.

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Why Dylan O’Brien Left Teen Wolf

Stiles’ absence from Teen Wolf wasn’t intentional. If it was up to Teen Wolf‘s producers and writers, not to mention O’Brien, Stiles would’ve played a much bigger role in the show’s farewell season. They were forced to use the character in a limited fashion due to a couple of reasons. First, there was a scheduling conflict between the show and Maze Runner: The Death Cure in which O’Brien played the lead character, Thomas. This is the reason why Stiles didn’t appear as everyone’s favorite Teen Wolf sidekick all of season 6’s first 10 episodes — the first time that this happened since the show premiered.

Things only got worse for the series’ latter half as O’Brien was eventually involved in a stunt accident during the filming of the same movie in March 2016. As it turned out, O’Brien’s injuries were more serious than initially perceived — so much so that production for the Fox film was shut down for a while. This obviously made it more difficult to bring Stiles on regularly in Teen Wolf season 6B. In fact, O’Brien revealed in an interview with Bustle that he wasn’t contractually obligated to appear in the show’s remaining episodes at all.

In the end, Teen Wolf was able to pull off a satisfying finale for the Beacon Hills gang. Not only did they find a way to bring back Stiles in the final 10 episodes which took place after a time jump, but it also gave them the opportunity to re-incorporate Derek Hale (Tyler Hoechlin) into the story. Granted that it wasn’t the ideal scenario as fans would’ve wanted to see Stiles more involved in the action with Scott, the show was able to make the best out of the predicament that they were in.

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Stiles Also Wasn’t In The Teen Wolf Movie

Stiles was also absent from the Teen Wolf revival movie made for Paramount Plus. Most of the original cast, including Crystal Reed as Allison Argent, returned for the Teen Wolf movie, which premiered on the streaming service in January 2023. Though Dylan O’Brien was approached about returning, he eventually declined. According to showrunner Jeff Davis, O’Brien was approached about a return to the character before a script was ever finished. After quite a bit of back and forth with O’Brien open to returning for a cameo, but ultimately deciding against it.

Just because Stiles wasn’t in the Teen Wolf movie didn’t mean that his presence wasn’t felt. His beloved Jeep was a major part of the action, which O’Brien actually owns and lent to the production team. His internship with the FBI that was teased in the series finale of the show also paid off as it was hinted in the movie that Stiles was an FBI agent on a big case. Since the Teen Wolf series last saw Stiles in a relationship with Lydia Martin (Holland Roden), the movie did have to address his absence in her life, which it did with an emotional reveal about her recurring nightmares of his potential death.

The Teen Wolf movie did leave room for more adventures in the world of werewolves if Paramount Plus decides to go for a sequel. There’s always the possibility that Dylan O’Brien could return as Stiles in a future installment.