Nearly a decade has passed since Dylan O'Brien last played MTV's Teen Wolf fan-favorite Stiles Stilinski, but the buzz around the 2023 movie (available with a Paramount+ subscription) follow-up to the TV show proved that plenty of people remained invested in the character. While O'Brien didn't appear in Teen Wolf: The Movie, he did recently reveal the Teen Wolf tradition that he has carried on to every project since that sci-fi drama launched his career back in 2011.
Stiles was O'Brien's first major credit, years before leading the Maze Runner franchise (and sustaining a life-changing injury on set) and starring in Taylor Swift's "All Too Well" short film, and he hasn't forgotten his roots. Despite his reasons for not to join the Teen Wolf movie, he opened up to EW about the element of Stiles that he quite literally has brought on every job of his career since. He said:
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. As a little tradition, I wear it to my first day of shooting on every job. 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. I’m a super nostalgic person like that, so that would’ve been devastating for me.
Well, it's a good thing that Dylan O'Brien hasn't drastically changed sizes since Teen Wolf premiered back in 2011, because I imagine it could be in delicate condition after all these years and his many film and TV credits! He actually didn't wear the blue Beatles shirt for much of the MTV show's pilot, and the sequence running through the woods was pretty dark, but the actor evidently makes sure to carry on the tradition of wearing it to all sets since then. Luckily, he didn't lose it for good in the wind.
Since the show is now available streaming to anybody with a Hulu subscription, new generations can discover the highs and lows of the Teen Wolf journey. When I revisited the first-ever episode to get a look at the shirt, it was almost shocking to see how young all the cast members looked. O'Brien went on to reflect on the series still being discovered by teens so many years later:
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. 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.
Not only did Teen Wolf get that full first season, but it ran for a total of six before wrapping on the milestone 100th episode in 2017. While co-stars Tyler Posey and Crystal Reed already had several credits by the time the show premiered in 2011, such as Maid in Manhattan opposite Jennifer Lopez for Posey and the CSI franchise for Reed, O'Brien was new to the industry. Starting off a career with a hit show is certainly something to be proud of.
In recent years, Dylan O'Brien has spent more time on the big screen than on television shows, including Ponyboi and Saturday Night in 2024 and Twinless in 2025, the last of which is scheduled for a September release in the 2025 movie release schedule. If you do want to relive the heyday of Stiles Stilinski, however, Hulu offers every episode. Another Teen Wolf vet recently showed interest in a second movie, but it remains to be seen if there's a future for the franchise, and whether O'Brien will ever revisit it in ways beyond his t-shirt tradition.
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