Ever since chatter about the third and final season of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” began, creator and author Jenny Han has teased that the ending of her book series might not determine exactly how — and with which Fisher brother — Belly’s journey might end.
Han, who published the last novel in the trilogy, “We’ll Always Have Summer,” well over a decade ago in 2011, is used to fans shipping Belly (Lola Tung), with either Conrad (Christopher Briney) or Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). But she admits the fandom for the Prime Video series has upped the ante, leading to plenty of speculation about how the love triangle might end.
“I’m always thinking about my book fans,” Han said. “There’s Team Conrad book fans, and there’s also some Team Jeremiah book fans … there were teams even when I was writing them years ago, so it’s not new, although it is pretty intense with the show.”
While remaining tight-lipped about how the season plays out, Han admitted she has “no idea” how fans will react to changes from the book in the upcoming season, but she finds the conclusion to be a “very satisfying ending … as far as a TV show goes.”
“For me as a storyteller, I have to feel good about what I’m making, and I have to feel proud of it, and I have to be excited by it,” Han said. “I just write what I think is the best story, and that’s what I’ll stand by.”
Han embraced a change from the book early on into crafting the season as she elongated the time jump in the books from two years — which saw Belly closing out her first year of college — to four years in the series, with Belly now finishing her junior year while Jeremiah finishes his senior year at Finch and Conrad is well into med school.
Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) and Belly (Lola Tung) in “The Summer I Turned Pretty” Season 3 (Erika Doss/Amazon)
The time jump — which sees Tung, 22, Briney, 27, and Casalegno, 25, playing their characters closer to their own ages — “raises the stakes on everything because anything is possible,” according to Han. The age gap certainly makes Belly and Jeremiah’s engagement a bit more palatable — which happens in the book and the trailer confirms to happen in the show — while still meriting backlash from Belly’s mom, Laurel (Jackie Chung).
“It’s always really hard when you’re getting older and you have a lot more independence, you’ve been living outside of the house, and you don’t always agree with what your parents want for you … but they’ve raised you to be independent and somebody who can make their own decisions,” Han said, adding that both Belly and Laurel are quite stubborn, leading to more “friction” within their “power struggle.”
Belly’s struggle with her mom underscores what Han identifies as the season’s themes — growth and coming into adulthood — which trace back to the first season of the YA series. “They’re all figuring out what is next for them — where do I belong, and what should I be doing — all of them, in different ways, are grappling with those questions,” Han said. “Losing Susannah accelerated everyone, in a way, to have to grow up overnight, and then now seeing her in college and ready to make these … big decisions and choices for her future is the next natural progression for [Belly].”
While mulling over getting married to Jeremiah sets up for a dramatic close to the series, Season 3 will also see Belly explore her interests in college, prompting her to figure out what kind of student she wants to be and where she wants to focus her time.
For Jeremiah, on the other hand, college has given him a change to slow down after his mother’s death and enjoy the college experience, according to Han, though that might lead to some friction as Belly attempts to find her own way at Finch. “He loves Belly so much and they’re so close. But he also has his fraternity brothers and his college friends, and he has created a real family for himself at Finch,” Han said.
Likewise, heading to California gave Conrad the freedom to be “a different version of himself without all the baggage of people knowing about the pain in his past,” according to Han.
As Season 3 plunges viewers into college and young adulthood, the series introduces several new players to the scene, including series regulars Isabella Briggs and Kristen Connolly and recurring cast members include Sofia Bryant, Lily Donoghue, Zoé de Grand’Maison, Emma Ishta and Tanner Zagarino.
And of course, Season 3 welcomes back Sean Kaufman as Steven and Rain Spencer as Taylor. After pivoting from the book to include a romance between the pair in the Prime Video series, Han said crafting their Season 3 journey was “one of the most challenging parts of writing the season, because there’s so many places they can go.”
“We wrote a lot of story that we never even see on screen, just so we knew what the history was, and we knew where the fault lines were in the relationship,” Han said, adding that their love story as lots of rich backstory given Taylor’s crush on Steven since they were kids. “That’s always such juicy fodder for a relationship — the ‘she fell first, he fell harder’ — I think they epitomize that.”
To fill in the gaps of the four years, Han gave both couples — Tung and Casalegno and Kaufman and Spencer — questionnaires about their character’s relationships, which included everything from, “which side of the bed do you sleep on?” to “what’s your pizza order?” to “who usually pays when going out to eat?”
Han also sent both pairs on scavenger hunts to gather various photos of each couple in different scenarios as set dressing, with Han explaining “I just needed a variety of things to really make it feel real and to populate their spaces with photos.”
“They also made a competition — they’re all very competitive,” Han said. “I think Sean and Rain did theirs first, and they were cute, and then Lola and Gavin did theirs, and those were really good, and then Sean and Rain were like, ‘This is not fair … we didn’t have a third person traveling with us to take our photos. We need another chance of this.’ And so then they did again, and then their photos were so good … it was a tie they were all amazing.”
Steven (Sean Kaufman) and Taylor (Rain Spencer) in “The Summer I Turned Pretty” Season 3 (Erika Doss/Amazon)
As Han closes out the existing “Summer I Turned Pretty” triology, she hasn’t fully closed the door on a potential return to Cousins à la “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” spinoff series “XO, Kitty,” which was renewed for a third season at Netflix.
“You never know in the future,” Han said about the potential for a spinoff series, noting she’s “taking a beat” as the flagship series reaches its end. “To me, it starts with story and what feels creatively exciting, and if the stars were to align, then, I’m always happy to go back to Cousins.”
Until then, Han hopes the third season leaves viewers of all ages with a renewed sense of hope that you can always start over again and grow from your past mistakes.
“You can make big mistakes and blow up your life, and there’s still a path forward for you — it doesn’t mean that your life is like over because you didn’t get into the college you wanted to go to, or you had a breakup,” Han said. “Life is long … be gentle with yourself. You can learn from your mistakes, but I think that having grace for those mistakes is really important.”
“The Summer I Turned Pretty” Season 3 premieres Wednesday, July 16, on Prime Video.
