Even The 'Famous In Love' Cast Doesn't Know What 'Locked' Is About

When you’re watching a show or movie about fictional actors, it’s always fun to try to piece together what the project they’re starring in is supposed to be about — like in Friends, for example, what the heck was Joey Tribbiani’s character on Days Of Our Lives even doing on that show? Famous In Love is all about an everyday girl being thrust headfirst into Hollywood, so it’s no surprise that the series has its own fake story within a story: Locked, a big budget film adaptation of a beloved YA book. But do we know what the movie Locked is actually about? Not even the cast is totally sure.

"Nobody knows, literally the cast is having the biggest issue trying to figure that out too," Charlie DePew tells Bustle on the Freeform Upfronts red carpet. "But I think what we have been saying is it’s kind of like The Notebook in a time machine."

In the Famous In Love YA book series, Locked is the story of a love triangle between three best friends: August, her former crush Noah, and her now-boyfriend Ed. When their plane crashes on a desert island, Ed disappears, and August starts falling in love with Noah instead.

From there, things get extremely confusing (hint: time travel is involved) — and it seems like the show is certainly leaning into that aspect of the story. "It’s about this couple, they’re in love," Pepi Sonuga tried to explain. "Somehow the girl, which is Bella [Thorne]’s character in Locked, ends up in an alternate universe. She traveled back in time with another guy [played by Carter Jenkins], not the first guy [played by Keith Powers]."

It doesn't help make things less complicated that parts of the story were changed from how they appeared in the books to make producing the show easier — as Georgie Flores pointed out, the desert island setting has been changed "because [otherwise] you’d have to shoot on the beach all the time," which can get costly and annoying.

But hey, change isn't always a bad thing, and the new TV version of the Locked movie has a few tricks up its sleeve. "You get to see Bella and I and Keith traveling through different eras, which is very fun with wardrobe and things like that," Carter Jenkins said.

While fans probably won’t ever be able to watch Locked themselves, they will be able to dig into the in-universe book that the movie is based on; Famous In Love author Rebecca Serle actually wrote Locked as a tie-in novella. Obviously it's not the same as the TV show — but then again, what YA adaptation is just like the book? — but reading it might give some insight into the motivations of Paige’s character, August. Or, at least, it'll give you insight into the way that Bella Thorne plays Paige playing August. Boy, this show is surprisingly meta, huh?

One thing's for sure: even if Locked isn't a real movie, that won't stop anybody from being completely obsessed with it. More cast photos of Paige, Rainer and Jordan in period clothing, please!