MTV’s Teen Wolf premiered back in 2011 and ran for six seasons, ending in 2017. Dylan Sprayberry and Khylin Rhambo joined the series as Liam Dunbar and Mason Hewitt in season four. They will both be reprising their roles in Teen Wolf: The Movie, which begins streaming Thursday, January 26 on Paramount+.
As someone who loved the original series as a fan but did not get to actually cover it as a journalist, I was thrilled to hear about the movie and my chance to speak with one of my all-time favorite casts about these characters. Before the film came out, I wanted to reflect on Teen Wolf’s legacy and how passionate fans still are about the show.
Dylan Sprayberry and Khylin Rhambo were generous enough to do just that with me over Zoom. We discussed how they first met, their favorite villains, attending conventions, why they didn’t hesitate to come back for Teen Wolf: The Movie, what a spin-off with their characters would look like, and much more!
The supernatural series followed Scott McCall, who is bitten by a werewolf in the pilot episode. We see him come to terms with his new identity, eventually becoming a True Alpha and forming his own pack, which ends up including both Liam and Mason.
Now, six years later, the beloved pack is back to protect the town of Beacon Hills once again. To celebrate, the duo recently attended New York Comic Con 2022 with the film’s writer and executive producer Jeff Davis as well as co-stars Tyler Posey, Holland Roden, Shelley Hennig, Crystal Reed, Colton Haynes, Vince Mattis, and Amy Workman. So what was it like for them to be back on that stage with all of those Teen Wolf fans at the panel supporting them?
“I mean, it was just really weird because I think we were off the show for like five years or something, and obviously, we still all feel the love but to go back out there and to have something new to kind of give to the fans and see that it still is. I felt like it was, in a good way, a twilight zone; it felt really weird to still have all the same support and to jump back into something. I mean, even today, I don’t know if you saw Khy, but they made a little kind of Minecraft-looking video game that you can play on the computer for Teen Wolf: The Movie,” Sprayberry pointed out, referring to Werewolf Escape, which you can play on Roblox. “This show has been around for so long and we’re still doing new stuff, making these little video games, making a movie and it was a really cool feeling. It was really weird to be back up on stage, not in a bad way, just weird.”
“I always use the same analogy, I hate reusing it, but it’s so accurate to how I feel. It’s literally the feeling of like, if you were to just leave high school for five years, make a whole group of friends in high school, feel that energy, that whole routine, and then quit. High school is over, you graduate and then five years later they’re like, ‘All right, you’re going back to high school for a bit and all of your friends are gonna be there.’ It’s the same teachers, the same students and you’re just like, wow,” Rhambo added, echoing to his co-star’s sentiment that it felt like the twilight zone. “But aside from just that essential feeling, it was truly surreal because you don’t really expect that, especially when there’s an ending to a series, you kind of say goodbye to it with your heart. So being able to open that door up and it actually be for real? I just took it in. I just soaked it up. I didn’t really think about it, but when my brain did think it was like, what is going on right now?”
Dylan tells me he knew Khylin long before Teen Wolf was “even a thought in our heads, like before either of us ever had an audition.”
“The first thing I said to you was, ‘You look like Clark Kent.’ I was such an abrasive, abrasive kid back then and then I found out you actually played Clark Kent in the movie [Man of Steel],” Rhambo remembered. “I was like, ‘Wait, what? What?’ This was before I even knew that so we just had the same similar friend group that blended together.”
The actor then continued to talk about bringing that friendship into their work, which just so happened to be playing best friends:
“Well, first and foremost, I told him that I was auditioning for it, then Dylan put in a good word and next thing you know, Jeff had me audition. I did one audition and then I was like, ‘There’s no way I booked this and I’m gonna be working, playing best friends with someone that already friends with.’ So I remember me and Dylan, we were just being really diligent little actor boys like, ‘you know what, let’s go and before we do our scenes, I’m gonna come over to your house the night before, we’re gonna study this, and we’re gonna put our lines together,’ then we would do that for maybe like an hour and then joke, laugh, and ad lib and I don’t know, we just have a very playful spirit. I’m not gonna say we try to take it seriously and then we played, but I think that’s the best form of work as an actor is to play. So we kind of naturally did that and then off-set, we are laughing 24/7 — on-set and off-set. So it created that chemistry that’s just kind of like, you don’t fake anymore. We actually had to tone it down a little bit because we’re also in high-stakes situations as the characters. So it was just a blessing. It was just a blessing, you don’t really get that that often.”
“It was just really cool, Khylin kind of already said it, but it pretty much became our entire lives, you know? For the time that we were working, we would be rehearsing, then we’d go and work 12-hour days, come back home and hang out with each other and rehearse like we were in our own little world. It was really fun,” Sprayberry expressed to me. “It was basically just us, our little friend group, and then the Teen Wolf family and that was it. We didn’t do anything else. We pretty much lived on set, then would sleep, and then we go back and live on set. We’d sleep over at each other’s houses and eventually, we ended up living together for a while. It was really cool to completely get lost in the whole experience and not have to think about anything else. It was amazing.”
While there are plenty of noteworthy scenes in the series, there is one scene that always stands out when it comes to the funnier moments: Liam’s iconic “I fell in a hole” line, which Khylin recalls was even put on a shirt.
“I can’t believe how popular that line is,” Sprayberry remarked. “There was a time when this company wanted to make shirts and raise some money for charity or do some stuff and one of the shirts just said, ‘I fell in a hole.’ Wow, I forgot about that. I wonder where all those shirts are.”
“Honestly, because the show was so popular, I’m not gonna act like I just did this full, like, ‘I’m doing this,’” Rhambo replied when I asked about any improv moments. “I actually book it and then I had to learn how to grasp not getting my nerves in the way, not trying to be perfect, and trying to do what I think must be done as an actor. I got over that, I think, about maybe three to four episodes in, but once I found a groove, there was this one scene and it wasn’t even that much of an improv, but Dyl, you remember when you were looking at the maps or whatever, and then I’m like, ‘oh, we need to go here, here, and here,’ then you’re like, ‘all right, bet,’ when you rip the page out and leave? Then my character was just supposed to just be stunned for a second and then leave, but because you actually had to rip a real thing off, I really was stunned, like, ‘Oh my God,’ and I stayed there for a long time because I had no idea what to say. Everyone thought that was so funny and they kept it as part of one of the scenes. It’s not really an ad-lib because I didn’t really say anything, but I really milked that moment, but not on purpose. You really tore an actual page out of this map book.”
“Everything was just so much fun all the time,” Sprayberry recounted. “A lot of actors say that our job is basically to play make-believe all day and essentially, we get to be kids, and I think we all really took advantage of that idea that we’re all pretty much getting paid to act like children. So we just took advantage and ran with it. We’re just always messing around. There’s just so many fun times. It’s hard to put a finger on one. I mean doing the ‘I fell in a hole’ thing was so funny. We used to play baseball in the hallways of the hospital and of the school or have wheelchair races in the hospital, just like all kinds of dumb, fun stuff.”
“It was most definitely when they said cut, we would just kind of like make fun of each other or tell inside jokes left and right. Me and Dylan’s comedy got more and more abstract and silly, and it became us just making random noises, saying random words, and doing all these random character voices,” Rhambo laughed. “I always say this one and I hate that it’s my only answer, but it just stuck with me, it was a scene where me and Dylan — the shot was literally only on our fingers, on our hands and we had to be on one point of this map and on the other point, then we’re following this grid and our fingers meet like, ‘That’s where we’re supposed to go!’ So they just recorded, not even on our faces, we had our fingers and we just had to like slowly slide them together. I remember I couldn’t even look at Dylan doing it because when I would laugh, you would see my finger shake or something. They made us do it again a few times when it was supposed to be really a one-shot pick-up shot. I turned my head and I just did not look at you, I was laughing the entire time. I was like, ‘Why is this so hard?’”
Of course, after playing these characters for three seasons, they will always stay with the actors.
“I don’t know if it was all a coincidence, if Jeff somehow noticed, if I did something that made him ever notice that I had anger issues, or it was just the lining of the stars, but there are so many reflections of what Liam was kind of going through and what I felt like as a kid,” Sprayberry said. “How I felt about myself by studying the Liam character and figuring out how I wanted to play him and stuff, I’d be like, ‘Oh, I do the same thing,’ or ‘I don’t really feel like that, I feel like this, so that’s kind of a difference between me and Liam,’ and it was almost like a mirror. I had something to bounce the concept of who I thought I was versus who he was as the seasons were going on, as I was kind of growing through my teenage years.”
“Yeah, it was a very interesting experience for me. Mason was, on paper, so much different than I am, and that’s another thing why I held the character with such reverence because normally, I was used to playing characters that I felt like all immediately, ‘that’s kind of me.’ But this was a character that was way more sensitive, way more vulnerable than me, and willing to live in his truth more than I even was, as just like a human soul,” Rhambo explained. “So, being able to do that, expand myself, and play a character that is different from me, but ultimately the same, just because our lifestyles might be different or modes of expressing a motion to loved ones is different, I then realized like, ‘Oh, I’m the same. I’m the same in just a different body and a different life circ*mstance.’ I really admired, like, I think it’s instead of just Mason the character, it was me being able to be Mason taught me that I am, as an actor, we can be anything, we really are anything. We’re like formless beings that are holding one form that we think is our personality. So once I was able to be like, ‘Oh, this thing that I think is Khylin and this thing that I think is Mason, I’m just all of it,’ just being able to express these other — I don’t know how to articulate what I’m saying, but I think you get it. It was just a really cool moment to just realize that I’m anything I want to be, it’s just a matter of being that. When I did the first scene after the show ended, the first scene in the movie, my instincts were like, do not go do character study, do not dive super hard and try to practice really hard, just do it. Then, action came and all the mannerisms, all of the quirkiness in a way that I remember Mason being just happened and I was watching that. I wasn’t doing it, so I was like, ‘Oh wow, this is what it is to play a character for long enough that it’s just in you.’”
After being attacked by a wendigo, Liam is bitten by Scott in order to save his life. He then joins the pack as Scott’s beta. Naturally, this means the actor had a lot of scenes with both Posey and Dylan O’Brien, who portrayed Stiles Stilinski since the pilot.
“We were always really close to Tyler and Dylan because they were kind of closer to our age, we all had similar interests, and we all had a lot of scenes together. I think they just set the tone to have fun, you know? It’s kind of easy to get on a big popular show, like that’s popular in kind of the teenage bracket and young Hollywood or whatever, and to kind of take yourself really seriously like, ‘We’re the hot new actors in town.’ They just really always made it about having fun and giving the best with what you have in the moment, and not making things difficult and thinking you’re above everyone because you’re an actor or you’re number one on set,” Sprayberry shared. “It was always very much so just be humble, have as much fun as you can, and when they call action, give the best performance you can.”
Along with all of the Werewolves, Banshees, Werecoyotes, Hellhounds, Kitsunes, and other shapeshifters of the night, audiences were introduced to many different villains throughout the series.
“My favorite actually was always Theo. I love that character, just cause he was the first villain that I saw that fought Scott with his mind and attacked his relationships and his position of power psychologically rather than just like, ‘I’m coming to kill you.’ And sure that happened eventually, but it was just cool. I’m really into psychological thrillers, so I love that Jeff tapped into that version of villain. That was one of my favorites because then next thing you know, you got Liam just mauling Scott and that should never happen because that’s like Liam’s stepdad pretty much, but it was cool. It was really cool to just watch that whole thing unfold. Obviously, I really loved the fact that I ended up being The Beast, that was something fun. I did not expect that,” Rhambo revealed. “The episode before it was written, that’s when Jeff finally told me. I was like, ‘whoa.’”
“For me, Theo is a great choice. I really like Theo a lot because he goes back and forth. He’s a villain, then he’s an ally, and then he’s a villain again. When he’s your ally, you don’t really know if he’s your ally, and then when he’s the villain, he kind of surprises you eventually. So I really liked all the back and forth with his character and I think in the long run it created a really great arc. Cody did such a great job with it and with Theo,” Sprayberry praised. “The Beast was one of my favorites as well because I love just the design of the character. I thought it was really fun and I love the period piece flashbacks in France and all that stuff. I thought that was so cool, all those guys in the tavern talking about hunting the thing, that was awesome. The Dread Doctors were really cool too and I thought those were some of my favorite costumes, and the sets in their laboratory underground and all the kind of industrial steampunk cement mechanics. That was really fun. It’s hard to pick one in particular because I like them all for different reasons. But as a non-supernatural or, you know, extra-supernatural villain, Theo is great, and then probably The Dread Doctors for super scary, intense villains. The Dread Doctors were scary I feel like.”
“They were because they did that classic walk thing, they would never chase you but they’ll still get you because they’re walking, but using fear,” Rhambo agreed.
With the mention of Theo, I couldn’t help but bring up how much fans ended up loving the dynamic between him and Liam, which earned a laugh from both actors as we dove into shipping. Khylin was sure to let me know that they were one of his favorite ships.
“I don’t know when it really started because then everyone started shipping us and doing that whole thing,” Dylan even referenced their ship name: Thiam. “But I mean, I think Cody and I just had really great chemistry. Khylin and I got on the show and we were working a lot together, and Khylin and I had great chemistry because we knew each other for a long time. Then a little while later, whenever Cody got on the show, him and I on the same day moved into the same apartment complex by accident. So I was going into the leasing office and he was walking out and I’m like, ‘What are you doing here?’ He’s like, ‘I just got an apartment here,’ I’m like, ‘That’s why I’m here!’ Again it was very much like the stars all lining up and everything working out the way it was supposed to. But it was pretty much like me, Khylin, and Cody all living in the same apartment complex for two or three years, going to the gym, hanging out, going to set, driving to set together, driving home together.”
“Cody and I had a lot of time to get to know each other really well and we had the extra time to build chemistry, so as we kept working together, we were always spending so much time together. I’m guessing that had a part or something to do with it in terms of the writers maybe thinking like, ‘Oh, we should do more with them,’ or I don’t know. But yeah, I mean, I think any time any of the cast for Teen Wolf had a chance to do something humorous or add some kind of flair of humor, sarcasm, or something like that, we all would jump on it,” Sprayberry noted. “That was so much fun for me and Cody to eventually get to the place where we were doing more of that kind of stuff. It’s almost like dark slapstick comedy or something, you know? It’s all these serious things but somehow we found a way to kind of make it funny at the same time.”
After the series ended, Liam and Mason would have been the perfect pair to lead a Teen Wolf spin-off. Rhambo has the perfect pitch for the story:
“The pack 2.0! I feel like the pack where Liam learns how to become an alpha. Mason learns how to use his brain to discover whatever new kinds of supernaturals are out there, new threats, and learn from what Stiles did to help the supernaturals as a human. Then new characters and same Beacon Hills madness, but just with a new sect of heroes, something like that.”
“Yeah, I think it would be fun to see a spin-off of some sort. I mean, me, Khylin, and Amy — obviously, we can’t talk about much because it would all be spoilers, but I think once the movie comes out because we’ve skipped so much time and there’s so much new information and new characters that we’re gonna see, I feel like there’s so much room for a lot of spin-off concepts. Like I was saying, even the three of us were all kind of coming up with something when we were filming the movie,” Sprayberry told me. “But I wonder what it would be like to have a spin-off where… because if we’re all running around in the pack but Liam is not an alpha, I wonder what that would be like. It would kind of just be like they’re Scott’s runners, they go off and do missions and they just like call him, you know? He’s like Bosley in Charlie’s Angels, he’s just on the phone all the time. But I don’t know, there’s so many different things that could happen with a spin-off and what that would entail but I think it could be really cool.”
At the end of season 6A, there was a beautiful scene between Liam, Mason, Scott, and Stiles where Stiles passes down his beloved baseball bat to Mason. So what did that moment mean to Khylin?
“I really had this fear initially with season four like, what if they don’t like my character? What if people just think like, who’s this new guy? But you throw all that away and you just do what you were hired to do, you do it with love and care, and then you get to see it unfold. My audition was the first episode of season one because they didn’t write Mason sides as the actors were auditioning, so they actually had me audition and I was reading Stiles’ lines. So Mason always had that sort of kind of archetype of Stiles. That symbolism of having the bat passed on really was like, ‘Oh, okay, well, here we go.’ Not only mission accomplished, but we’ll see where it goes from here. So that was really interesting to be a part of and just grateful.”
After they wrapped both the show and movie, the duo were able to take some items from set.
“I stole some shoes from the film,” Rhambo admits. “They had like a garage sale in the office, all of the wardrobe was out, we all could go in and see the things that they were gonna give away, and we could pick one or two things. I remember that. I remember Dylan got a cool jacket or something and I forgot, I might have gotten something, but if I was a wolf, I would have stolen my teeth for sure.”
Speaking of teeth, Dylan kept his: “Yeah, I have the teeth. They’re so cool. I love — they changed my teeth for the movie and they made them look more intense, they’re a really cool design. I took those and when we were filming the show, I took a pair of boots that I wore all of season six. They’re like these Doc Martens that I thought were awesome and then I took my lacrosse stick.”
In the Teen Wolf finale, fans were treated to the return of many familiar faces, such as Stiles, Derek, Ethan (Charlie Carver), and Jackson. In the film, the one and only Allison Argent is finally coming back after her heartbreaking death in season three. Reed previously came back to the show in season five, but this time, she portrayed Marie-Jeanne Valet, who was an Argent ancestor.
“I think we all got to kind of act with each other at a certain point. I mean obviously, there were specific characters that we were all kind of — we had these little brackets of trios that would all be working on a specific part of the problem or solving what the pack has to fix,” Sprayberry explained. “I had a really fun time watching Khylin be a police officer and be a deputy. It was really fun to work with the sheriffs and work with Ryan and Linden. That was cool. I mean, it was cool to have Colton back too because Khylin and I both got to meet Colton through like Comic Cons. We never did any acting with him, so this was the first time we got to do that.”
“I was definitely going to say Colton, but also it was really cool to work with Crystal too because I remember before I even thought about ever being on the show in high school, everyone was watching it and I wasn’t watching the show actually. I just remember the next day after the episode aired, everyone was like, ‘Bro did you hear that Allison died?! Allison’s dead bro, I can’t even believe it,’” Rhambo voiced.
He continued to say, “Then I found out I was gonna be on the show and I wanted to tell some of my old high school friends that used to watch it, and they’re like, ‘but you’re not gonna work with Allison!’ So it was cool that she was back in the film and I got to see her a few times. That was really cool. You kind of just give respect to the people that were a part of the show from day one because they have stories that I just sit back and listen to, and can imagine about just the energy it was, being a part of the show that you don’t know what it’s gonna do. It was one of the first scripted shows on MTV and next thing you know, it kind of took over and just feeling their memories when they would talk about, ‘Oh, remember in Atlanta, we did this, this, and this,’ and all of their stories, that was just awesome. I liked more so the off-set things that I got to find out when we were in Atlanta and you know, they would hang out at the hotel lobby, on set and I just got to kind of watch them reminisce a few times. As a person, that was really cool to see. I respected it and I experienced it vicariously through them because I remember what that felt like for me and Dylan, but the show was already on, doing its thing. It was kinda more of a well-oiled machine compared to when something first starts and you just got this new energy. So yeah, I just respected it, especially the last day of filming the series. I could tell like, this hurts for me, this is bittersweet for me, but imagine filming 100 episodes. It was definitely longer than the four years that me and Dylan were working on it. I was just like, ‘Wow, much respect to these people and the connections that they’ve created,’ and just got to watch it.”
For Dylan and Khylin, it was an immediate yes to step back into the shoes of Liam Dunbar and Mason Hewitt for the new film.
“It was instantly a yes for me. I was actually surprised, you know? When the show ended, we never really talked at all about if it would ever come back, any ideas of spin-offs, or anything, so I was definitely surprised to get a call from Jeff about like, ‘If we did a movie, would you want to play Liam again? Would you want to do it?’ It was all hypothetical. Like, f*ck yeah, I want to do it! It was never a question,” Sprayberry commented. “Then also when I found out we were going to film in Atlanta, that was even more exciting. I’ve only filmed out of town a few times, and so that was really fun to get to go do that and kind of go back to where everyone started, where we didn’t get to be.”
“Yeah, it was an instant yes for me,” Rhambo stated. “I didn’t really set my hopes on anything just because I learned my lesson as an actor. You get attached to a project, anything can happen. When I say attached to it, I mean emotionally. You do an audition and you get attached to like, ‘I really want to book this,’ and then you book it, and then it’s like, ‘I really want this to do well.’ Then it does or it doesn’t and being attached in that capacity, you can set yourself up. It’s kind of like going on a date and then immediately, like, ‘I love this person.’ It’s just not the smartest thing to do. So that’s what it was. But when it revisited, when it resurfaced, I changed so much. The essence of myself was still the same, but I mean, we all went through our own mini-like evolution, and not even mini, it was serious for all of us, the whole planet did. So, it was surreal, yes, and I definitely knew within myself, it was something that I was supposed to do and not only supposed to, but really wanted to. But like I said about the attachment thing, I practiced a lot on not staying that way, but once contracts were being presented, then I got flight dates and all of that, I was like, ‘Okay, well let’s do this. This is gonna be really nice.’”
As someone who has attended conventions as both a fan and journalist, I had to take a moment to ask them about what hearing from and meeting their fans means to them. They gave beautiful answers, truly proving how powerful television and the characters presented on screen can be for audiences.
“This is more of a testament to Jeff, the writers, and everyone that contributed to creating the stories each season and creating the characters, but I feel like they really tried to create a character for every type of person and find the root of what makes that type of person’s struggle valid,” Sprayberry responded. “All my fans have something to do with anger issues. Every fan that I talked to, it’s like when they were watching the show and they were younger, they related to Liam and how he kind of found his grounding, had to get over a lot of his anger at people around him, and all these kinds of things. I hear that a lot, it’s not even like one time, it’s all the time whenever we go to a convention or even sometimes just out in daily life. It’s with every character, all these characters really speak to people and really help people get through their struggles and so, that’s a really amazing thing to be a part of.”
“Yeah, it was very much so that. A lot of people that were struggling with their sexuality as a younger person and they were still young meeting them — sometimes they weren’t, sometimes they were older than me, but a lot of the times, you know, it’s Teen Wolf, so you’d meet people that are in that age bracket and just seeing how they would tell me they love to watch the relationship of a gay person and a straight person homies without ever acknowledging like, ‘Oh yeah, man, even though you’re gay,’ none of that cause that’s not how the world should be. So the fact that Jeff did a good job at not ever emphasizing our differences, even though we were all so different — I mean, my best friend on the show wasn’t even a human. So you know, we never even emphasized like, ‘I still like you, even though you’re a werewolf.’ None of that mattered because it shouldn’t. I mean werewolves or not, that would be kind of crazy, but still, we could get to that point where we could just have radical acceptance,” Rhambo expressed.
The actor then added, “And so that was really awesome to see people that told me that. I mean, I always would never take the credit within myself in my heart. I wouldn’t reject their love, but I also internally would be like, ‘I didn’t really do anything. I kind of just did this role. This is all shout-outs to Jeff,’ but I would accept the compliment of like, ‘Hey man, I’m very glad that me playing that character did something for you that made you feel comfortable with yourself.’ Also, there’s just a lot of people, especially the people that go to those conventions, they get such a big payoff of watching the show due to most of the time, it’s because of true suffering that they’ve been through in life and being able to kind of immerse yourself in another world other than yours. It had a healing effect to a lot of people that told me. I’ve seen people’s scars on their arms from self-harming that are healed then, but I’d noticed it and I would let them know that like, ‘Hey, I feel you, I care for you. I’m glad you’re here on this Earth and here at this convention,’ and really treat them as a person rather than just like this kind of, I don’t know, fan, even though you can be fans of someone, but we all are human beings. So just being able to see that in them and them see that in me, it became like a really nice love exchange. I see it as a higher purpose to go to those conventions. It’s a lot of fun to travel and be with my friends, and, you know, get paid to travel, but ultimately, our job is to facilitate a very good experience for people that are paying to meet us. So I didn’t take that lightly ever.”
“It’s weird cause it almost never feels real. No matter how your life changes in terms of the outer world, what you’re doing, what’s going on, how many people know who you are, or support what you’re doing, you still have to deal with yourself and everything that you’ve been going through since you were born. And so, it’s like this weird two sides of a coin, you know? It’s like, it’s real, but it’s not,” Sprayberry answered in regard to how his life changed after joining Teen Wolf. “When my first episode aired, seeing my following start going all crazy, that was a really weird moment, you know? Going from someone that nobody knew to all of a sudden, I could reload my Instagram at a certain point– this was obviously right when it came out, not like weeks or months, but hundreds of people would reload, like every time I have hundreds more followers or whatever. That was a really weird thing to notice and just to see how as soon as that came out, it was a chain reaction of just people knowing who we were. Also, I don’t think anybody liked my character at first because they tried to make it seem like I was going to be one of the villains. So it was weird to see everyone hate me for like the first two episodes, and even looking at YouTube videos of interviews that I did and all the comments were intense like, ‘I want to stab him in the face,’ and weird stuff like that. That’s when it got real. I was like, ‘Oh there are people out there that don’t like me at all.’ That felt real.”
“Everyone told me to just get ready, get ready for the fanbase, the fanbase is next level. I was just like, ‘Oh okay, that’s cool.’ I didn’t really realize until I went to Comic-Con and they’re like, ‘Yeah, you’re gonna be in the Hall H,’ and it’s the room that’s huge, it’s like thousands of people. I’ve never heard an applause of that many people from the other end of the stage,” Rhambo mentioned. “I’ve been in concerts and other things, but you can’t really think anymore, you’re just like, ‘All right, I’m here now.’ It’s kind of like jumping off a high dive and you just kind of let everything else take its course. It was crazy.”
One thing that stands out about any supernatural project is the special effects. Dylan spoke to me about what went into Liam’s werewolf transformation:
“I mean there’s a lot of different aspects to it. It was cool. It’s cool knowing that all the makeup they did for the werewolves other than the color of our eyes was all practical effects. Our FX team does a really good job and so, everything shows up on camera and it all looks really good, you know? I’m sure they do touch-ups in post-production afterward, but the fact that we just do face makeup and fangs and it looks that good almost naturally is a really cool thing too. I think the makeup guy should be really proud of that. It’s also cool to see how they shot to kind of bring out the intensity in the villain-esque part of each group of villains, they kind of shot it differently. The way they shot the Berserkers and set up shots for those big characters, the way you angle the camera to make it feel big, to make them feel giant versus the way they did all these really intense close-ups for The Dread Doctors because it’s all really fuzzy and intense kind of energy. It was cool to see all the different little ways and compartments of things that they changed and personalized for each set of villains.”
“I didn’t have too many effects as far as like special effects. I just remember there was this one scene that I never knew how hard it was to do in real life, but I’ve always seen this in movies or TV shows, you see a group of people walking in slow motion. I think it was me, Dylan, and Victoriawere walking and it was gonna be a slow-mo walk. I was walking in slow motion and they’re like, ‘No, just walk normal and we’re gonna make you go in slow motion,’ and I was like, ‘I don’t know how to walk normal now.’ All I’m supposed to do is walk, but I know it’s gonna be in slow motion so I don’t know how. It was the craziest,” Khylin concluded. “I haven’t been in my head about something so simple, but then watching it, I was like, ‘Oh, we’re just walking in slow motion.’ So I was really excited to see that scene because I was like, ‘That was tough for no reason for me.’”
