OMG, Belly’s Back – But in a Way That’ll Break Your Heart All Over Again! 😭🍷
Picture this: The girl who turned pretty one endless summer is all grown up, ditching the Cousins Beach drama for Eiffel Tower sunsets… until a ghost from her past crashes the party and flips EVERYTHING upside down. That epic love triangle? It’s not over – it’s just getting messier, sexier, and way more Parisian. Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah? Your summer’s about to reignite with this jaw-dropping first look at what comes NEXT after the finale bombshell.
(Trust me, you’ll ugly-cry and scream at your screen in the best way.) Who’s ready to dive back in? Tap the link below for the exclusive trailer drop and spill your theories in the comments – I need to know if we’re all shipping the same ending! 👇❤️
The salty air of Cousins Beach has always carried a whisper of heartbreak for Isabel “Belly” Conklin, the wide-eyed protagonist of Jenny Han’s beloved young adult trilogy. But as fans wiped away tears from the series finale of The Summer I Turned Pretty just four days ago, few could have predicted the next chapter: a full-fledged feature film greenlit by Prime Video to extend Belly’s story beyond the small screen. Announced on September 18, one day after the emotional curtain call on Season 3, the movie promises to plunge viewers back into the tangled web of first loves, family secrets, and the relentless pull of what-ifs that made the series a streaming sensation.
For three summers – spanning 2022 to 2025 – The Summer I Turned Pretty captivated audiences with its sun-soaked nostalgia, Taylor Swift-fueled montages, and a love triangle so addictive it spawned endless TikTok debates and fan fiction marathons. Based on Han’s 2009 novel and its two sequels, It’s Not Summer Without You and We’ll Always Have Summer, the show followed Belly (Lola Tung) as she navigated adolescence in the shadow of two brothers: the brooding, bookish Conrad Fisher (Christopher Briney) and his golden-boy sibling Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). What started as a coming-of-age tale about awkward crushes and beach volleyball evolved into a multigenerational saga of grief, growth, and the kind of love that lingers like seaspray.
Season 3, which wrapped on September 17 after an 11-episode run that premiered July 16, pulled no punches. Jumping ahead two years from Season 2’s cliffhanger, it found Belly on the cusp of her senior year at Finch University, engaged to Jeremiah and seemingly ready to trade Cousins’ sandy shores for a stable future. But true to Han’s blueprint, Conrad’s return – like a storm cloud over a perfect July day – shattered that illusion. The season’s back half whisked Belly to Paris for a bachelorette escape turned soul-searching odyssey, introducing new faces like Corinna Brown as a free-spirited expat and Fernando Cattori as a charming local artist who tempts Belly with a taste of independence. Amid bridal showers gone awry and a car crash that left fans gasping (Steven Conklin’s near-miss had Twitter in meltdown mode), the finale delivered a gut-wrenching flash-forward: Belly and Conrad, older and wiser, reuniting at the old beach house years later, their hands intertwined as the waves crashed in approval.
That scene, teased in the final trailer released August 29, didn’t just resolve the triangle – it reignited it. “All roads lead to Paris in this epic, show-stopping series finale,” the logline read, and boy, did it deliver. Belly’s 22nd birthday bash spirals when Conrad shows up uninvited, forcing a confrontation that peels back layers of regret and unresolved tension. “Life’s too short not to spend it with the person you love,” Belly declares in one pivotal moment, her voice cracking over a swell of Swift’s “How Did It End?” – a track that had fans speculating for weeks. By episode’s end, the engagement ring is off, and Belly’s choosing herself, stepping into adulthood with Conrad’s shadow (and eventual light) trailing close behind.
The response was immediate and overwhelming. Season 3 racked up 25 million global viewers in its first seven days, per Prime Video metrics released July 28, reclaiming the No. 1 spot among women aged 18-34 – a demographic the series has owned since its debut. Social media erupted: X (formerly Twitter) lit up with threads dissecting every glance between Briney and Tung, while Instagram Reels of the Paris montage, set to “YOYOK,” went viral overnight. “Connie’s little ‘shut up’ when he thought she was serious – I’m crying,” one user posted alongside a clip from Episode 9, garnering over 11,000 likes. Team Conrad stans declared victory, with hashtags like #BellyAndConradForever trending worldwide, while Jeremiah loyalists mourned the “golden retriever boy” left in the dust. Even critics, who gave the season an 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, praised its bold deviations from the book – like extending Belly’s Parisian detour into a full subplot – for adding depth to her evolution from girl to woman.
But as the credits rolled on that sun-dappled beach house porch, a question hung heavier than the humid East Coast air: Was this really the end? Han, the 42-year-old auteur behind To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, had long framed the series as a trilogy faithful to her source material. “Three books, three seasons,” she told Entertainment Weekly in March 2025. “It feels right to me.” Showrunner Sarah Kucserka echoed the sentiment, emphasizing in a June interview how the adaptation honored the novels’ emotional core without unnecessary filler. Filming wrapped in late 2024 after a grueling shoot in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Paris stand-ins in Vancouver, with cast members like Tung admitting to Elle that playing Belly felt like “graduating” from her own youth.
Enter the movie announcement, a plot twist worthy of Han’s signature rom-com flair. Dropped via a cryptic Prime Video teaser on September 18 – featuring a faded Polaroid of the Cousins house fluttering in the wind – the project was confirmed hours later: The Summer I Turned Pretty: Eternal Summer, a feature-length continuation penned by Han and Kucserka. “There is another big milestone left in Belly’s journey, and I thought only a movie could give it its proper due,” Han said in a statement to Variety. Plot details remain under wraps, but insiders whisper of a time jump to Belly’s mid-20s, exploring her post-college life as a budding journalist in New York, with echoes of Paris pulling her back into the Fisher orbit. Expect returning stars Tung, Briney, and Casalegno, alongside Season 3 additions like Kyra Sedgwick as Laurel Conklin, whose strained mother-daughter dynamic reaches a poignant thaw in the finale.
The decision to pivot to film isn’t just a cash grab on the series’ $100 million-plus viewership haul; it’s a savvy evolution for a franchise that’s outgrown episodic constraints. Han’s books, which skyrocketed to Amazon’s top three spots post-debut, always hinted at untapped potential – the epilogue of We’ll Always Have Summer leaves Belly and Conrad married, but with kids on the horizon and family fractures mended. The movie could delve into that “happily ever after,” perhaps flashing forward to their first child’s birth amid a Cousins reunion, or tackling real-world grit like career ambitions clashing with domestic dreams. “Belly’s story isn’t about the summer anymore,” Tung hinted on Today September 19, her voice thick with emotion. “It’s about carrying that magic into the mess of real life.”
This isn’t the first time The Summer I Turned Pretty has flirted with extension. Rumors of a Season 4 swirled as early as June 2025, when casting news for new regulars Isabella Briggs and Kristen Connolly fueled speculation of expanded arcs. Han shut them down gently in interviews, insisting the trilogy’s structure demanded closure. Yet fan demand – petitions on Change.org hit 50,000 signatures by finale night – and the series’ cultural footprint (hello, that infinity necklace merch line) tipped the scales. Prime Video, fresh off hits like The Boys spin-offs, sees the film as a low-risk bridge: a two-hour event that could gross theatrical bucks before streaming exclusivity.
Behind the glamour, the production’s journey mirrors Belly’s own turbulence. Tung, now 22, landed the role at 19 after a cold audition tape from her NYU dorm; Briney, a Juilliard alum, brought brooding intensity honed in indie theater; and Casalegno, the Texan surfer dude, infused Jeremiah with effortless charm. Off-screen, the trio formed a tight-knit “throuple,” as they jokingly called it, sharing Swift concert tickets and late-night script reads. But challenges abounded: Season 2’s 2023 shoot battled COVID delays, while Season 3’s Paris sequences contended with Vancouver’s relentless rain doubling as “romantic mist.”
Han, drawing from her own Korean-American upbringing, infused the series with layers of identity – Belly’s half-Asian heritage, the Fisher matriarch Susannah’s (Jackie Hoffman) battle with cancer – that resonated beyond teen drama. “It’s about the women who shape us,” Han reflected in a People profile, crediting her mother’s influence on Laurel’s fierce protectiveness. The show’s soundtrack, a Swiftian masterclass, amplified that: From “August” in Season 1’s debut to “The 1” underscoring Conrad’s Season 3 heartbreak, each needle drop felt like a diary entry.
As production gears up – scouting locations in actual Paris this time, per Deadline whispers – the cast is buzzing. Briney, promoting his upcoming indie London Calling, told Variety he’s “thrilled to give Conrad the send-off he deserves, or maybe not – Han loves her twists.” Casalegno, eyeing a music pivot, joked about Jeremiah’s post-breakup glow-up: “Surfing in LA, writing bad poetry – the full arc.” Tung, meanwhile, is eyeing Broadway, but not before this “one last dance” with Belly. “She’s been my mirror for four years,” she said, tearing up on set. “Saying goodbye? Terrifying. But hello to her future? Electric.”
Critics and fans alike are divided on the movie’s necessity. Some, like Rotten Tomatoes aggregator scores hovering at 88% for the series overall, hail it as a deserved epilogue; others worry it’ll dilute the bittersweet finality. “The books end on a high note – why milk it?” one X user lamented, echoing a post-finale thread with 9,000 engagements. Yet Han’s track record – turning To All the Boys into a Netflix juggernaut – suggests gold. The film could explore spin-off teases too: Steven’s Wall Street ambitions, Taylor’s (Rain Spencer) post-high-school reinvention, or even a Susannah prequel flashback.
In a landscape of endless reboots, The Summer I Turned Pretty‘s pivot feels organic, like Belly finally outgrowing her bikini. It reminds us that some stories, like some loves, refuse to fade with the tide. As Han put it in her announcement: “Belly turned pretty one summer, but she stays unforgettable forever.” With a tentative summer 2027 release window floated by insiders, fans have time to stock up on tissues – and maybe book that Paris trip. After all, in Han’s world, every ending is just another beginning.
