Have you read “The Perfectionists” books by Sara Shepard?
If you have, then you automatically can tell that the Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists series isn’t page for page.
Showrunner I. Marlene King opened up to The Wrap about why that is.
“I think everybody should read Sara’s books because if you watch the show, we’re not going to give away the twists from the books,” she says. “Because if you read the books, it would be almost impossible to pull off on a TV show and sustain that.”
However, the series is “really embracing this world of perfectionism and these young people who feel like they have to be perfect in everything. I’d say that more than anything — the characters and the overall mystery of the show — we pull from Sara’s original ideas.”
Marlene also shared that she sees the series going for quite a few seasons.
“I don’t want to spoil anything, but there are so many great characters and such a rich woven story that there’s going to be tentacles from this first story that go one for a long time with plenty of twists and turns,” she shared. “With Pretty Little Liars, I thought that we’d be lucky to go for five seasons, so to get to go for seven, honestly, I just give so much credit to the fans and to the actors.”
Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists airs TONIGHT @ 8PM ET/PT on Freeform.
Ava, Dylan and Caitlin look really stylish for the funeral of Nolan Hotchkiss in this still from Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists.
In tonight’s all-new episode, “Sex, Lies and Alibis”, in the wake of Nolan’s (Chris Mason) murder, Ava (Sofia Carson), Caitlin (Sydney Park) and Dylan (Eli Brown) join forces to give themselves a credible alibi on the night in question.
Meanwhile, Alison (Sasha Pieterse) goes toe to toe with Dana Booker, BHU’s new head of security, who is suspicious of Nolan’s “perfect” posse, and Mona (Janel Parrish) starts slipping into old habits while wrestling with a guilty conscience.
Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists airs TONIGHT, Wednesday, March 27th @ 8PM ET/PT on Freeform.
Everyone has secrets on Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, and that includes Graeme Thomas King‘s character, Jeremy Beckett.
Speaking in a recent interview, the British actor opened up about if viewers can really trust him.
“He’s English and I was told to never trust anyone that was English in ‘Pretty Little Liars’, so probably best not to trust him,” Graeme says.
He adds, “But you can’t trust anyone in the show, I still don’t trust them and I was in it!
“That’s the beauty of the writing, you don’t know who to trust and Marlene [King] and Charlie Craig and all the writers, they create these multilayered characters and that’s so interesting as an actor to work with that sort of stuff.”
Stay tuned for an all new episode of The Perfectionists, tomorrow on Freeform.
Mona might be getting a new love interest soon on The Perfectionists, according to star Janel Parrish.
Speaking to Teen Vogue, the actress shared that the boyfriend she had at the end of Pretty Little Liars is no longer part of Mona’s life.
However, “[Fans will] definitely get a little taste of something fun with Mona in the romance department,” she says, adding a “very, very fun development” is coming.
Janel does hopes that Mona will find real, lasting love in the spin-off though.
“Mona has always kind of been a little bit of a loner,” she shared. “She’s never been one of the joiner types, and I think she yearns for that, especially the way she started out, with being bullied and left out of the inner circle. While she prides herself on being independent, there is a certain part of her that just wants to be loved.”
The Perfectionists airs Wednesdays on Freeform.
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Sofia Carson Originally Auditioned For A Different ‘The Perfectionists’
‘The Perfectionists’ Addresses What Happened With Emison on Series Premiere
Sofia Carson wasn’t always going to be Ava Jalali on The Perfectionists!
The 26-year-old actress originally auditioned for Sydney Park‘s role, according to showrunner I. Marlene King.
“Sofia was doing an arc for us on Famous in Love when we were casting this, and I knew she was a big Pretty Little Liars fan. I just love and adore her, so she came in and read. I hadn’t had time to write a scene for her character yet, so we gave her a scene from Pretty Little Liars and just changed the names, but she knew immediately that it was a Hanna-Mona scene from what season and when,” Marlene explained to The Wrap.
She added, “She initially read for Sydney’s character, but she’s such a fashion icon that we thought — even though in real life she’s such a Spencer Hastings — making her this coder-fashion icon was such a perfect fit. Because she is such a workaholic and just such a smart, bright young lady.”
Now we can’t see anyone else as Ava!
Besides Sasha Pieterse and Janel Parrish, will more stars from the original Pretty Little Liars series make their way onto The Perfectionists spin-off?
Here’s what showrunner I. Marlene King had to say in a new interview with TheWrap:
On early casting decisions for The Perfectionists: “As [PLL] started coming to an end — maybe a year before — I started talking to the cast and floating around the idea of who’s ready to move on and who’s ready to keep exploring their characters and where they go from here. And Sasha and Janel were both really excited about the opportunity to do that. Warner Bros. had the rights to Sara’s book, and I thought this was such a great place to explore new secrets, new lies, and incorporate a couple of our great O.G. characters.”
“They were really excited about getting to explore their characters more. And I was excited because I really didn’t think we got to see enough of Mona on the first round of PLL. I know fans wanted to see more and learn more about her. They wanted her to have romance and a full life beyond just being that sort of Crazy Mona on PLL. So that was a real no-brainer for me.
On Mona’s role: “You’re going to have to wait and see. Mona was never really trustworthy on PLL — I mean, she loved Hanna, but she still hit her with a car — but I think you’re going to get to see a side of Mona that you haven’t seen before, and you’re going to be able to trust her a little bit more than you were on the other show.”
On whether or not she’s chatted with other familiar faces about popping up on the show: “Yeah, I think they’re all really excited for us. And because the show is premiering this week, we’re all getting together, there’s lots of different opportunities for the cast to support the show, and they’ve all been really fantastic. There’s quite a few people who’ve expressed interest in coming on. But for the first season, I felt it was really important to launch the show on its own and let it stand on its own two feet, so it’s not really about those appearances. But I think next season we’ll be a lot more open to having some of those OGs and those fun moments. I will say, though, even though we don’t see them, there are moments through Mona and Alison where we find out what’s going on in Rosewood. We will get information from them about what the other characters are doing.”
The Perfectionists airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on Freeform!
