Credit: @thesummeriturnedpretty
The Summer I Turned Pretty has been a success for Amazon Prime, and not surprisingly, the series has been confirmed for season two, according to Deadline. The series is an adaptation of Jenny Han’s YA novel about a love triangle (it’s a young adult novel, what else would you expect?) between a girl and two brothers. It’s a touching coming-of-age story about love, friendship, family, and, naturally, one perfect summer. The series stars Lola Tung, Jackie Chung, Rachel Blanchard, Christopher Briney, Gavin Casalegno, Sean Kaufman, Alfredo Narciso, Minnie Mills, Colin Ferguson, and Tom Everett Scott.
The new series was an essential milestone in showcasing growing up at such a vital time in every teenager’s life. While a coming-of-age tale is nothing new in movies & television, the adaptation gave its characters a chance to grow and evolve, “This was the summer that she was discovering who she was and who she wanted to be and creating her path and finding her independence,” Tung told PEOPLE. “And I related to that a lot.”
Credit: @thesummeriturnedpretty
However, part of the success of The Summer I Turned Pretty is that it goes beyond being a typical Young Adult adaptation by addressing current issues, most notably Jeremiah coming out as bisexual. “It was one of the aspects of freshening it up and feeling like it reflects the world that we live in today and how I would tell the story if I was telling it right now. It has all the same pieces, but I think that Jeremiah being sexually fluid feels realistic to me, to that character as well.” Jenny Han explained in her TVinsider interview.
Just when it seemed as if the Young Adult novel craze had died down following the failure of the Divergent series, The Summer I Turned Pretty reheated it thanks to constant word of mouth through social media, most notably TikTok. Thanks to the hashtag #TheSummerITurnedPretty, videos involving the series amassed an astounding 1.3 billion views on the platform. Variety also reports that over 107,000 posts were made during its debut weekend and 725 million impressions across numerous platforms, which was backed up by the social analytics agency DMS. The series even managed to get Taylor Swift’s songs This Love, Cruel Summer, and False God into Billboard’s Top 40 songs, and these tunes go as far back as 2014!
Credit: @thesummeriturnedpretty
Of course, the substantial numbers on social media translated to viewership as the series debuted at No. 1 on Amazon Prime Video following the show’s premiere on June 17th. Amazon Prime Video was ecstatic over the intense buzz and viewership regarding the Jenny Han adaptation and reaffirmed that the show would be back for more to Variety, “We’ve been so impressed with the response and embrace of the series from young viewers as well as older generations as many co-view with the young people in their lives. These themes are universal, and we are encouraged by the social chatter, the uptick in Jenny’s book sales, and Taylor Swift’s music from the series topping charts again. We certainly have a summer hit, and we’re so excited for even more audiences to find the show and talk about it.”
Hans novels have seen a remarkable sales increase as well. Han has two more books in addition to The Summer I Turned Pretty, It’s Not Summer Without You, and We’ll Always Have Summer. Han went into the show hoping to please the fans of her novels, though she certainly didn’t expect it to become such a sensation, “I went into this adaptation hoping to please the book fans who’ve been waiting so patiently to see this story come on screen, but also hoping to connect with viewers who were coming to the show fresh. I think we’ve managed to do both, and there’s nothing more gratifying than that! It’s also fascinating that the show has brought a new generation of readers to the book, who are so eager to see where the story goes. It’s beyond thrilling to me that the story keeps finding its audience all these years later.”
There’s no word on when the second season will premiere, though we’ll surely keep you updated when the news comes out.
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