Off Campus Author Elle Kennedy Almost Killed Off Tucker

It’s hard to imagine Off Campus without its full ensemble of sensitive, sex-positive hockey besties. But there was a time when author Elle Kennedy considered cutting a key member of the team.

In a June 25 appearance on Morgann Book’s Off the Shelf podcast, Kennedy opened up about originally planning her hit novel series as a trilogy — and killing off Tucker as a way to “destroy” Dean’s perfect life, specifically. “I said, OK, we’ll do three. It’ll be Garrett, Logan, Dean, and we’ll have this fourth guy that we love,” Kennedy said. “And then we’re gonna lose him, and it’s gonna be horrible. And it’s gonna just shatter Dean’s entire world.”

Alas, Kennedy said Tucker “became too likable” to part with. The author credited her editor with going to bat for Tucker and helping put forward a different plot twist that would impact Dean’s arc in a similarly devastating way. (Book fans... IYKYK.)

Fortunately, Tucker would live to see his own love story in the fourth book, The Goal, which focuses on his unplanned romance (emphasis on unplanned) with pre-law student Sabrina. But before Tucker was saved, Sabrina and Dean were meant to get together. “I wrote, I believe, like the first 10 pages — and I hated them together. They were so toxic,” Kennedy said. “And I think there’s a difference between enemies-to-lovers, light enemy banter, and people who genuinely didn’t like each other. It would have taken a lot to make me get them to a place where they can be together. And my gut the whole time said, This is not right. This is not the pairing.”

She ultimately decided that Allie and Dean were a better fit — BRB as I rewatch them on the dance floor — and ditto for Sabrina and Tucker. During a recent chat with Bustle, Jalen Thomas Brooks teased his character’s journey, explaining that it will emphasize how “endearing and loving” Tucker really is.

“He’s going to meet this strong, sturdy mountain of a woman that’s like she doesn’t need you,” he said. “But it’s the sense of ‘Let me in; let me help; let’s do this together.’ With [co-showrunners Louisa Levy and Gina Fattore] and the whole writing team, I think the actress who plays her is probably going to be licking their fingers. Such good comedy, such good romance, really witty — it’s going to be nice.”