MANILA, Philippines - Teen Wolf star Dylan O’Brien isn’t exactly surprised that his television series, now on its second season, would become a hit.
“I’m just the luckiest (to be part of Teen Wolf). It’s insanely cool! I think we are confident with what we are doing. I expected people to like it or at least, I hoped that they would like it,” Dylan, 20, told The STAR in a recent phone interview.
Teen Wolf, airing in the Philippines Friday nights at 10:05 on beTV, revolves around the teenage drama and adventures of boy-next-door-turned-werewolf Scott McCall (Posey Tyler). With his faithful best buddy Stiles (played by Dylan) by his side, providing moral support and yes, much-needed comic relief, Scott navigates through high school life with superhuman abilities and wolf-ish urges after getting bitten one night that ultimately changed his life.
Shot on location in Georgia, Atlanta, the US TV series is executive-produced by Jeff Davis (Criminal Minds), as loosely based on the 1985 movie of the same title created by Davis himself, starring Michael J. Fox.
In the lead-up to shooting for Teen Wolf Season 2, the lead cast spent weeks with personal trainers to get into shape for the hectic production and demanding scenes.
The 12-part Season 2 follows a successful debut season last year, rating among the Top 20 shows across all American TV networks among teen and young adult viewers aged 12 to 34. Season 1 also became the highest-rated new series in two years on the US cable channel it launched on.
In the first season, viewers saw Scott keeping his new powers and struggles a secret from love interest Allison Argent (Crystal Reed) only to discover that she belongs to a family of lethal werewolf hunters.
As Scott gets caught up in the battle between the werewolves and the hunters (with Allison being molded by elders into an expert wolf hunter), expect the plot around its fresh-faced, breakout cast to thicken in Season 2.
Dylan explained, “What to expect from the season as a whole is that it all becomes more vicious I think. Vengeance is involved now. It’s becoming a war. It’s gonna be more action-packed.”
Will Stiles continue to stand by his friend or will it be too overwhelming for the human in him?
Dylan said, “My character Stiles will have to handle all that in the only way he can, randomly and usually with no balance. I think the main challenge for Stiles is whether to be involved in this or not. I think his instinct is to always help out, to save, to protect his friend. But I think what might happen is you know… because he’s human, he’s vulnerable and as things get crazy around him, he might think about pulling out.”
Stiles may be tagged as the “sidekick,” but he has proven to be a stand-out character. Dylan reckoned, “I don’t think anybody is a sidekick on the show. What the show focuses on is the story of the main characters and then the stories of those they affect. I am totally fine with being called sidekick, but my job as an actor is not to think of it that way.”
Teen Wolf is actually Dylan’s first acting project. He started out as a YouTube star, posting funny shorts with his mom also starring in them and his dad serving as the camera operator.
He recalled, “I got a manager from my YouTube videos that I did in my high school. I was 18 years old and entering college. Teen Wolf came up. I went to audition for it, got a few callbacks and then got cast. Then the rest is history. That’s the first role I got. So, I got to launch ‘my acting career’ through Teen Wolf.”
With werewolves, vampires and other supernatural kind hogging the pop culture spotlight these days, does he think this genre is here to stay or are its days numbered?
He mused, “I think it’s like any trend. I think trends go in and out, we have our time, and things come and go. It just depends on what product involvement, what people get sick of, what else comes back into play, or what becomes cool again. And I think in our generation, it’s the supernatural, the wolves, the vampires… Our generation is totally getting obsessed with that genre. I don’t think it’s a matter of whether or not that will stick (as) I think people will eventually get sick of this (laughs). I really do! I think it will fade, then it will come back.”
But does he believe in the supernatural?
Dylan said, “I don’t believe in werewolves, but yeah, I believe in the supernatural. I have premonitions sometimes, like weird stuff. There’s a weird way about the universe and I totally believe in the stuff.”