One of the first movies in this recent resurgence of the romantic comedy genre was Netflix’s To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, which adapted Jenny Han’s bestselling novel and effectively made its young stars, Lana Condor and Noah Centineo, massive names. Now that All The Boys has become a trilogy and its author has made an upcoming spinoff called XO, Kitty, Han is reflecting on her streaming adaptation journey thus far.
Jenny Han just served as the showrunner of The Summer I Turned Pretty, which is an adaptation of her first YA novel before she wrote All The Boys. While speaking to CinemaBlend, the bestselling author shared how she feels about the conclusion of the All The Boys movie trilogy, saying this:
In some ways it feels like it's been longer than [a year]. Partly because the third film came out during COVID – so we weren't able to do the big premiere and the big send off. But, it was a really sweet experience. And, I feel fortunate that I got to tell that story with those actors and that whole creative team. But I'm also excited to see the next chapter with Kitty as well.
The main All The Boys film series ended in February of 2021, giving Lana Condor’s Lara Jean Covey an ending to her high school love story with Peter Kavinski that began with personal letters getting to her crushes. The trilogy had Lara Jean and Peter deciding to stay together despite their distance in college. Following the success of those movies, Jenny Han has developed the spinoff series XO, Kitty, which revolves around Lara Jean’s scene-stealing younger sister, played by Anna Cathcart. Han spoke about XO, Kitty with these words:
For XO Kitty. I approached it like if I was gonna do another book for Kitty, then what story would I wanna tell? And that was my jumping off point.
XO, Kitty will tell the first love story for Kitty Covey and mark the first time Jenny Han has made an onscreen project that wasn't pulled from a beloved novel released beforehand first. When CinemaBlend asked the author how that process was different and if we can expect an XO, Kitty novel, she said this:
Probably not. I mean, never say never, but, I think that it really works well as a TV show and I think people will be excited to see Kitty growing up and will meet her like the same age as we met Lara Jean, which I think is always fun when you grow up with somebody to come back and see them a little bit older.
It'll be exciting to tune into the series once it premieres on streaming and finds a release slot on Netflix’s TV premiere dates. Before we see what’s next for the All The Boys franchise over on Netflix, Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty has already arrived on Amazon Prime and has been even renewed for a Season 2.
When adapting The Summer I Turned Pretty, Jenny Han talked to CinemaBlend about changing some elements of her book she wrote over a decade before to be more diverse, like adding more of a focus on its main character being from an Asian-American family. The Summer I Turned Pretty centers on a teen girl going on her annual summer vacation to a family friend's home and finding herself in a love triangle between two brothers. The show, now streaming on Amazon, also features an incredible soundtrack full of Taylor Swift songs.
Jenny Han has expanded her presence on streaming in the past four years of being part of it, and she seems to be poised to bring us even more 'coming of age' fun.
