Why The Summer I Turned Pretty Spinoff Isn’t Happening

The current season of The Summer I Turned Pretty may be a more final farewell than fans had hoped. Like the Jenny Han book series that inspired it, the Prime Video series will wrap up in three installments. Beyond that, the once-bright outlook for a TSITP spinoff has significantly dimmed.

A Case Of “Wishful Thinking”

Prime Video Head of TV Vernon Sanders has officially dashed spinoff hopes, at least for now. Though he previously teased future returns to the world of TSITP, he recently admitted to Deadline that he’d gotten carried away when he made those comments.

“That was probably wishful thinking for me at the time,” he said when asked about expanding the universe and spinoffs. He noted that they’ve “moved away from those conversations,” even as the streaming service is still planning more projects with Han.

“We’re pursuing new and different things with Jenny right now,” Sanders said. “She’s presented some other things that are related to this. So once the full season is launched, we’ll get into conversations, and we’ll ask her to pick from the many things that she’s surfaced.”

For now, that means leaving the Cousins Beach crew behind — once Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah’s story finally plays out in Season 3, of course.

Is The Spinoff Door Really Closed?

Sanders’ “wishful thinking” came in September 2023, when he raved about The Summer I Turned Pretty in another Deadline interview. “We’re just over the moon… This show is going to continue to be a huge centerpiece for us, and we absolutely have plans to continue building it,” he said. “Jenny’s got great vision for where she wants to go with all of it, but we’re already hard at work developing complementary pieces.”

When prompted to say more about those “complementary pieces,” Sanders added, “I will say stay tuned, but Jenny’s got some exciting surprises. So we’re thrilled about a Season 3, and she’s got a vision for more.”

As it turns out, Han hadn’t — and still hasn’t — figured out that vision. Luckily, she isn’t opposed to a TSITP spinoff if she can come up with the right idea in the future, she told Pedestrian TV in a July 29 video.

“I would always be open to coming back to this universe because I love Cousins, I love all the characters and the actors,” she said. “What would it look like? I don’t know. I think that then, you know, it would have to be something I was really excited about creatively and figuring out what that was.”

Whatever happens, we’ll always have summer.