Teen Wolf‘s nostalgic fangs have sunk deep into series actor Dylan O’Brien. The star tells Entertainment Weekly he still wears the first piece of clothing his character, Stiles, wore on the season 1 premiere on the first day of every movie or TV project he’s shot since then.
In an interview alongside writer-star River Gallo for their upcoming thriller Ponyboi, O’Brien tells EW he’s unsure about a potential cast reunion or another revival project (following the 2023 movie) for the 2011 MTV horror series, which ran for six seasons through 2017, but he’s still sentimental about the show.
“That job will always be near and dear to me. I still wear my t-shirt on every job. I bring a t-shirt that was the first one I ever wore on screen as an actor in my career. I still have it,” he explains. “As a little tradition, I wear it to my first day of shooting on every job.”
Frank W. Ockenfels 3/MTV
The 33-year-old Maze Runner actor’s insistence on bringing the article of clothing with him to each shoot also led to “a scary moment where it blew away in the wind at a park in Australia” in the recent past.
“I thought I lost it. It was a crazy, windy day, and I’d hang my t-shirt on my shorts like a towel, and it blew away in the wind. I sprinted across the park to retrieve it. I found it in a bush,” he says of the blue Beatles shirt. “I’m a super nostalgic person like that, so that would’ve been devastating for me.”
O’Brien again stresses that he wears it “to every first day of shooting,” including production of Ponyboi, a new crime drama about an intersex sex worker (Gallo) who becomes entangled with Vinne (O’Brien), a dangerous drug dealer in early-aughts New Jersey.
While he’s unsure about a potential revival of Teen Wolf (“I don’t run the ship over there,” O’Brien says), the star still has warm feelings about the franchise — even though he didn’t return for the 2023 Paramount+ movie that continued the story.
“It’s amazing that that show still gets so seen by young people, that was a tiny little engine that could when it first started,” reflects the performer. “We never thought we’d get a full season, let alone the staying power it has. I’ll always be grateful for that in my life.”
Though O’Brien didn’t reprise his role as Stiles in the 2023 film, Tyler Posey, Crystal Reed, Tyler Hoechlin, Holland Roden, Colton Haynes, and other OG actors did.
In a 2023 interview, creator Jeff Davis revealed that he was able to secure a character he desperately needed to bring back in the movie.
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“There’s one character that I really wanted to get back that I did get back, which is Seth Gilliam as Deaton,” Davis said at the time. “We weren’t able to have him for the finale and everything was so rushed that season that I missed him in it because he was an emotional anchor for Scott. He was a big part of the series. And to be able to give him this role was a joy.”
Ponyboi is in theaters Friday.