[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Teen Wolf: The Movie.]From show creator Jeff Davis, Teen Wolf: The Movie picks up 15 years after the events of the original series, as evil and an unexpected old flame have returned to Beacon Hills. No longer a teenager, alpha werewolf Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) is tested in a way that leads him to reunite with trusted friends and allies, including a wide variety of supernatural beings, to fight against a powerful and deadly enemy that has them all facing their pasts.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, co-stars Posey and Crystal Reed (who plays Allison Argent) talked about when they realized they’d really be returning to these characters, the ever-evolving script, getting to do a big lacrosse scene, how Scott sees himself in Eli Hale (Vince Mattis), finding the more feral version of Allison, the training Reed did for the movie, and what it was like for Scott to dig into his past, in order to help save Allison.

Collider: When and how did you guys learn that Teen Wolf would actually be returning? It’s one thing to have conversations about maybe coming back in some form, but when does it actually become real?

TYLER POSEY: (Show creator) Jeff [Davis] came to me, and us, and was like, “Do you wanna do this again?” Obviously, the answer was yes, but there’s always the doubt that it’s not gonna happen, until the movie is done and it’s wrapped. There’s always a possibility that, the day before we start filming, somebody pulls the plug. So, it was this suspended anticipation. It was really real on the first day of filming.

CRYSTAL REED: I feel similarly. So often, you signed onto projects and you’re very excited about them, and then they never see the light of day. For me, it was the very first day. My call was at 4am, and I remember it was the locker room scene with Tyler Hoechlin and Vince [Mattis]. I was shaking and nervous because I had no idea if I could step back into her shoes, but it was at that moment that I was like, “Damn, I’m doing this. This is real. Teen Wolf is back.”

POSEY: Hell yeah!

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Image via Paramount+

Did you also have a moment where you wondered if you should give yourself an out, in case you read the script and didn’t want to do it? What was that moment like, when you read the script?

REED: Funny you should ask, because we didn’t have a script, until the last two weeks of filming. It was very far along in. We were working scene by scene, and there was a rough outline. There were a lot of circumstances that led to that, so there was a suspended trust that we had to have, in Jeff and the producers and the creative team. We had to just go off of our actor instincts.

POSEY: For me, there was no out. Without me, I don’t think there would have been a Teen Wolf. I was like, “All right, I’m here, no matter what.” Jeff could write this movie about something really not warranted and not fun, but I was still in. I was locked in, so there was nothing I could really do. But thankfully, the script was great and everyone killed it in their performances. I’m happy with how it turned out, but it could have been different. It could have been weird, and I still would have been involved.

There’s a lot of fun stuff that you get to do in this. Tyler, what was it like for you to get out in that stadium for the lacrosse meet and to have a scene like that, especially with Scott no longer being in high school? What was it like still get to have that moment?

POSEY: I’m honestly getting chills, just thinking about it right now. Lacrosse was the first thing that we ever filmed with the pilot. It was the first day, with Orny [Adams], me and Dylan [O’Brien], on the lacrosse field. I’m getting gnarly chills. It means so much. Coming back in the capacity of Scott being a rusty lacrosse player who doesn’t know how to play anymore, it was just so funny. It was full circle because Scott started out as this underdog who wasn’t very good, got wolf powers and was extremely good at lacrosse, and now he comes back, thinking he’s gonna be great, and then shoots the ball over the scoreboard, over Allison’s head. It was just such a fun way to bring that back. That was a big moment for me, and for Crystal. I remember I was in the lacrosse uniform with my cleats, and we were all sitting back behind the camera, at one point, and I looked up. She was looking at me and I was like, “What?” She was like, “I’m literally having the weirdest flashback right now, of 10 years ago.” So, being in that wardrobe, with the lacrosse gear on, it really was a crazy experience. It was fun.

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Image via Paramount+

Do you also feel like he sees a little bit of himself in Eli Hale, in that moment? He didn’t really have somebody there to encourage him, in the way that he can fill that void for Eli.

POSEY: Oh, yeah. The only person that Scott could look to for any sort of advice was Derek, and he scared the shit out of Scott. Scott never had a mentor that went through the same exact thing as him. Scott definitely sees himself in Eli, even with the number that he has, wearing Scott’s jersey. That was really cool because I see myself, Tyler Posey, in Vince. Everything that he’s going through right now, the excitement that he has, he’s 19, he’s a skateboarder, just everything about him resembles me. It was just so lucky to have that dichotomy, in that scenario.

Crystal, what was it like for you to find Allison again, in this way? She doesn’t know her own history and her past, so how did you approach finding her, with her life stripped away from her?

REED: I called upon some personal experiences of deep confusion, and feeling lost and alone and scared, and having one driving force. She knows that she has to kill werewolves because they are bad, so that was the constant motivation for me. That aspect of Allison never existed before this film, so it was fresh and new and fun, and deeply hard and harrowing for me.

She feels a little bit feral.

REED: She is. She’s in kill mode, and there’s nothing that’s going to stop her, which is fun and exciting, and also really dark and scary.

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Image via Paramount+

Did the physicality feel very different? Did you have to train differently for it? What was it like to find that aspect of it again?

REED: It was very different. I’m glad you asked. I trained for about two months before the film. We did a bunch of physical training because I wanted to make sure that my endurance was up for the stunt work, but also some archery. For the series, she was new and not very confident, so I adopted a posture where she was hunched over and her heart was closed and she wasn’t sure of who she was. But for Allison in the film, she’s much more upright and she’s proud and she’s leading from her solar plexus, which I thought was really interesting. There’s so much happening with her intuition. She doesn’t know who she is, and she doesn’t know anything about what’s to come, so the physicality was much, much, much different. You’ll notice, at the end of the film, when they’re in the veterinary clinic, she feels a little more like Allison. She’s in a white dress and she’s a little more relaxed and her energy is a bit more open. Physical work is a really big part of my work, as an actor. I think it’s really helpful for me.

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Image via Paramount+

Tyler, what was it like for you, as an actor, to really dig back into Scott’s past, in order to bring Allison back to herself? You’re really drawing on so much of their past history, to help her find herself again.

POSEY: That was so much fun. I love Scott McCall so much, and we’ve done so much with him. He’s had so many ups and downs, and triumphs and losses, but we’ve never explored this before. It was really fun because he never doubted that he was gonna bring Allison back and have her memories flood back. With all of the experiences that they had in Beacon Hills, he just knew. He had this blind faith and this trust that it was gonna all work out. And then, he was also sacrificing himself to make sure that it did happen. He was gonna bring her back. That confidence that he had was is such an important part of Scott, but it was such a grown up version of that, that it was really, really fun to play, as an actor. And then, to do this thing that we’ve never gotten to do before, where he’s trying to convince Allison that they dated, he’s like, “I’m Scott McCall. I’m pretty sure you have a tattoo of me somewhere, or something like that.” It was such a fun thing to play. And then, Crystal was so good to play off of. She was almost this Terminator. She had this mission that she wasn’t gonna stop for Scott, and he had to really try to break through that tough shell of exterior. It was the greatest. It was so much fun. It really made this movie fun to shoot, and emotional. Scott got to relive some really emotional moments, like Allison dying in his arms and bringing up the emotions of that, and letting them come out and showing that to Allison, and showing the honesty in him. It was all over the place. It was such fun exercise, as an actor, to play that. I love it. I really loved that side of Scott. We haven’t ever seen him like that, so it was just so fun.

Teen Wolf: The Movie is available to stream at Paramount+.