Book To Screen
‘People We Meet on Vacation’ Movie Scoop! Emily Henry Reveals New Details & Easter Eggs
Emily Henry and Yulin Kuang may seem like a book-to-screen adaptation match made in heaven, but their creative collaboration almost didn’t happen.
Emily Henry shared on Hello Sunshine’s new podcast, Bookmarked, that the first time she read any of the How to End a Love Story author’s work was when she received a draft of Kuang’s screenplay for People We Meet on Vacation. As Kuang put it, her working relationship with Henry started as “an arranged marriage through the publishing industry and Hollywood.”
The author/screenwriter duo have now come together to work on adaptations of two of Henry’s bestselling romances, People We Meet on Vacation, which is likely to hit Netflix in early 2026, and Beach Read, which is currently in development for 20th Century Studios.
Knowing that fans are eager to learn more about People We Meet on Vacation, which will star Emily Bader (My Lady Jane) and Tom Blyth (The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) as Poppy Wright and Alex Nielsen, Henry and Kuang revealed a few details from their “four-year journey” working on the film.
According to Henry, one of the first questions Kuang asked her during the process was if Poppy had a middle name. Henry shared, “When there’s a new draft, she sends it to me. If she has a question, she’ll send it to me. Like, there was a week where she was like, ‘Does Poppy have a middle name?'” While Henry had not included Poppy’s middle name in the book, she revealed that her full name is Poppy Diana Wright, named after the late Princess Diana.
Kuang also brought her own love for the book to the film through Easter eggs for the readers. She revealed, “In the very first draft of People We Meet on Vacation, I knew what I would want as a reader was a recreation of the cover, and so I wrote something that was like a recreation of the cover that I think book lovers will identify.”
While the book cover recreation did make it into the final cut, an Easter egg viewers may not get the chance to see is the book that Alex is reading. According to Henry, “In that scene, I have a little Easter egg, which is that Alex is reading an Augustus Everett book,” referencing the male lead in Beach Read. However, this Augustus Everett book is one that came out after Beach Read.
“I have not named this novel in an existing book,” Henry admitted. “Because Hollywood is weird and because there are different studios making the Beach Read movie and the People We Meet on Vacation movie. I could use Augustus Everett’s name because he gets name-checked in People We Meet on Vacation, [but] we weren’t allowed to use any of the book titles that are included in Beach Read. So we had to come up with a new book.” While Blyth was holding this new Augustus Everett novel during the book cover recreation, Henry does not think moviegoers will be able to see the cover in the final cut. However, only time will tell.
Are you dying to see People We Meet on Vacation just as much as we are? Comment below with the scene you’re most looking forward to seeing on Netflix.
People We Meet on Vacation, Streaming on Netflix, TBA
