Gallery Links
Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin > Pretty Little Liars: Summer School > Season 1 > Stills > Stills
Summer is here and that means things are heating up in more ways than one in Millwood and trust us when we say that the fear factor is being turned up to 10 as some of our favorite little liars deal with some brand-new surprises.
Cosmopolitan has your official first look at the upcoming season of Pretty Little Liars: Summer School—previously known as Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin—which is set to make its big return later this spring on Max. Starring Bailee Madison, Chandler Kinney, Maia Reficco, Zaria, Malia Pyles, and Mallory Bechtel, the high schoolers over at Millwood will be on edge this season as they deal with the aftermath of A’s big ending…and his possible escape.
“It’s almost a direct pickup from the end of season 1. We end sort of on Christmas Eve, with our amazing last tag kill which is A killing Chip and A on the loose. And then we pick up Christmas morning with Imogen and Tabby unwrapping Christmas gifts with Tabby’s mom and getting a panicked phone call,” cocreator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa revealed. “And that’s all in the first minute of the episode so we are definitely picking up right where we left off in a really pulse-pounding way.”
And you don’t just have to take his word for it. A sent us some major clues and we definitely had to talk to Roberto and cocreator Lindsay Calhoon Bring to figure out what they all mean and what is next!
“The scares are a bit bigger, and badder and bolder. We do have a new a new villain who possibly is connected to Archie Waters, as we’ll learn early on in episode 1. One of our favorite franchises this season is SpookySpaghetti.com. Roberto and I and our writers are all very obsessed with Creepypasta, so we love sort of having our own website,” Lindsay said. “And this horror villain is going to test every one of the girls and they’ll go on their own personal journey.”
“Our villain is a female figure of horror, which is something we really wanted to explore in our female-centered horror show. We also wanted our villain to feel quite apocalyptic and terrifying. And because most of our season is set during summer—besides taking inspiration from from our favorite slashers—we wanted it to feel a little more apocalyptic, like something like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre or even Midsommar. There’s a lot of really horrific imagery tied to movies like that and we wanted to tap into those a little bit. And we also knew we had to make a villain scarier than A and it was pretty scary in season 1,” Roberto said.
“The mythology of the look of her face is very tied to into the mythology of the show,” Lindsay continued. “And that’s something that will reveal a bit later in the season.”
Oh, and we heard from A that she’s called Bloody Rose, so let the theories begin!
“If you do a horror church and you’re introducing a teen youth group, the expectation is that this is probably not your typical summer church group. This is some darkness there,” Roberto noted. “Lindsay and I are fanatics of youth cult movies like Children of the Corn so we kind of venture into that. This is a very fringe, non-denominational church that definitely has some horror. We love this subplot. We think Kelly and Greg are strangely comedic gold when they’re together. So it’s a really fun and ultimately powerful storyline.”
“Mouse and Ash are sort of our power couple. They’re stronger than ever and fully in love. Mouse is the most involved with SpookySpaghetti. She’s the most obsessed with reading lore about Archie Waters and becomes really ingrained in the site. That takes her on some scary and dangerous adventures,” revealed Lindsay. “Ash is very protective of Mouse, as always, but I think Ash knows that, at the end of the day, Mouse is a strong enough young woman that she’s going to do what she’s gonna do. Ash is very supportive of her and really is her teammate a lot of the time this season and is going on some of these crazy adventures with her.”
“One of the things we’re so excited about is introducing new characters and new love interests. It feels very summery to have summer flings and summer romances. Ava Capri is is joining us as Jen and we discover that Jen and Noa have known each other in the past. When they meet up, we can tell that there’s a lot of unspoken and unresolved affection. They immediately spark up a friendship and it very clearly quickly becomes obvious that there are deeper feelings there. And that’s all I’ll say about Jen and Noa. It’s fun though,” Roberto said.
“This is a total sweet treat and hot and steamy! In our first episode back, we introduce another favorite franchise of ours which is our group therapy with Dr. Sullivan. The icon Annabeth Gish is reprising her role from the original show and one of the most important moments of the season is Dr. Sullivan granting all of these girls permission to try and have fun and have a normal summer, while not forgetting the traumas of their past,” said Lindsay. “In particular with Imogen and Tabby, who we know carry a heavier trauma.”
“Dr. Sullivan gives these girls permission to say, Hey, you know you’ve all been through so much, but it’s summer. You can get summer jobs. You can have summer flings. You can have a sense of fun and a sense of normalcy. That really is what sets Imogen and Tabby up on that path. Imogen’s summer job just had to be an ice cream shop. It’s summer in Millwood and that’s complete iconography and we love it. She meets a young, handsome, virile Johnny, played by Antonio Cipriano, who has one of our favorite entrances in our season in episode 3. She meets him and they have an instant attraction.”
“Christian, played by Noah Alexander Gerry, enters Tabby’s life at the Orpheum, which is her safe space, the place she loves the most. He sort of has an entrance that reminds Tabby of Chip. At first Tabby is rightfully guarded, but as she gets to know Christian—who is the charming, fun, sweet cinephile that so matches Tabby’s energy—these two absolutely come together in a very sweet and romantic way. We love these two together,” Lindsay pointed out.
“Everyone who works on the show are all horror movie fanatics and Tabby iconically established herself as one. So when we were developing a love interest for Tabby, we really wanted someone who had similar interests and could kind of go toe-to-toe with her on horror movie references and her love of making movies. It’s fun for them to be kind of romantic foils for each other and then also able to be creatives together,” Roberto added.
“Faran—who from season 1 had a lot of trauma surrounding being a ballerina and being perfect—has decided that it’s not about perfection, it’s about being strong,” revealed Lindsay. “It’s about strength and finding that inside and out. Our villain is gonna give Faran a strength test.”
“We wanted to do something that was sort of the polar opposite of ballet. Something very masculine, very alpha. Not that ballet isn’t intense. But we thought, because it’s summer, what if one of our PLLs gets a job at the pool? And what if one of our PLLs is the only female lifeguard amidst a sea of male lifeguards? How will they haze her? Will she have to prove herself? Will there be sparks between Faran and one of these lifeguards?” Roberto said. “And Greg, of course, is sort of his kind of typical wisecracking teasing summer cut up and Faran is having none of it. So they’re kind of rivals and also friends. It’s a very affectionate rivalry between the two, but it’s definitely Faran in the boys’ world of lifeguarding.”
When asked about which three horror films you should watch before season 2:
Lindsay: Friday the 13th Part 2.
Roberto: When a Stranger Calls.
Lindsay: I want to say Hellraiser, but that’s more atmospheric and less the summer horror.
Roberto: One thing we’re having with is that this is a slasher sequel. So we reference part twos throughout. There’s a big set piece in episode five that’s really inspired by Friday the 13th Part 2. When we pick up right where the first season left off is Halloween II—we’re talking, of course, about the Jaime Lee Curtis OG Halloween.
Lindsay: I’d also say Scream 2 is a fun one! Our phone calls are Scream 2. We have a lot of iconography from Friday the 13th Part 2 with summer. Halloween II definitely picks up, especially with our with our A lore. It feels very John Carpenter.
“We are so excited for the show to come out. We love it. We built on the stories of season 1 in a really fun and exciting way. We really, as Roberto, said leaned into summer horror. This is full summer slasher fun. Every episode has an amazing horror element. Every one of our PLLs is put through the test,” Lindsay said. “And every one of our and we have all of the great markers of a fun summer: summer romances, summer horror, summer friendship. And, at the heart of it all, our PLLs are still the sisters that they’ve always been and stronger than ever.”
