Exclusive Interview
Will ‘Off Campus’ Cover Hunter’s Love Story & More Briar U Plots? Showrunner Spills
What To Know
- Off Campus Season 1 on Prime Video adapts Elle Kennedy’s The Deal, with moments from her other books incorporated as well.
- Showrunner Louisa Levy revealed to Swooon why she chose to include moments from The Score and a crucial Briar U character.
- Levy hopes to expand the show beyond the four core Off Campus books to include all Briar U romances as well.
Okay, Elle Kennedy fans, we have to talk. Is Prime Video covering both the Off Campus and Briar U book series in their adaptation?
As far as we knew going into Off Campus, Season 1 was set to follow the plot of Elle Kennedy’s first Off Campus novel, The Deal, a.k.a. Hannah (Ella Bright) and Garrett’s (Belmont Cameli) love story. After binge-watching all eight episodes of Season 1, which premiered on May 13, fans have come to learn that more than just The Deal made its way to TV, in the best possible way.
From Dean (Stephen Kalyn) and Allie’s (Mika Abdalla) The Score love story taking over Episode 6 to that Hunter Davenport (Charlie Evans) bombshell, showrunner Louisa Levy sat down with Swooon to explain just how deep into the Elle Kennedy Universe she’s hoping to go in future seasons of Off Campus.
After one incredibly steamy dance and an infinite number of yearning gazes shared, what started as Easter eggs setting up The Score romance, which fans assumed would take center stage during Season 3, became a full-fledged Season 1 situationship between Dean and Allie. As Levy put it, “Their love story does start as a secret, so I thought it would be fun to introduce that as a secret from the audience as well.”
Prime Video
Of course, Dean and Allie hooking up at the same time Garrett and Hannah are sorting out their feelings for each other throws a bit of a wrench into the popular theory that each couple would get one season. Levy explained, “It felt really organic because Allie and Hannah are best friends, so she’s already part of the world.”
For this different medium, it felt important to have at least one romance going while Hannah and Garrett were going through it. After all, an entire episode of heartbreak kinda kills the mood. “We also have a moment in our season when Hannah and Garrett (spoiler alert) break up, and we wanted to make sure that there’s another couple keeping the energy and the love story alive at that point, even when we have a heartbroken couple,” Levy revealed.
After Episode 6, it was clear Off Campus had already covered quite a bit of the love story Kennedy set up in The Score before Dean and Allie’s “official” season. Luckily, Levy had another trick up her sleeve. Enter: The Play MMC Hunter Davenport.
Even if you somehow saw the Dean and Allie twist coming, this one was truly a shocker. In case you haven’t read the books, here’s a quick rundown: The original book series follows Garrett, Logan, Dean, and Tucker’s romances, in that order. Kennedy’s follow-up book series, Briar U, comes immediately after and chronicles Fitzy, Jake, Hunter, and Conor’s romances, in that order. TL;DR, this is a major switch-up from the original books because Hunter is technically part of a different (yet interconnected) series.
Prime Video
According to Levy, dropping the lore that Allie has hooked up with Hunter is “a launching point to hopefully explore some Dean backstory in Season 2.” During the first season, Dean reveals that Hunter went to school with his sister, Summer, who eventually ends up with Fitzy. “It really was an opportunity to put a little bit of a twist in [Allie and Dean’s] storyline and prolong it just a little bit so that we have lots of room to play with them in future seasons.”
That said, she admitted, “We also wanted to nod to the book fans that we might have some other characters that you might not expect showing up in fun ways.” Could this mean Levy is setting the stage for all of the Briar U romances into Off Campus? She shared, “We want to get to all of the characters in due time, should we be lucky enough to get that far.”
Now that it’s clear Off Campus will be interweaving storylines from Kennedy’s original books, we couldn’t help but ask whether she sees the show going beyond four seasons, past The Goal, and into the broader Off Campus universe. “I would love that,” she responded. “I don’t know what I’ll be allowed to do, but I would love to keep doing this for as long as people keep watching.”
Does she have plans for more than four seasons? “Well, listen,” she explained. “There are four core Off Campus books. The Legacy is wonderful, but doesn’t sustain its own season. And then we have the four Briar U books, so in success, we could do all of them.” We were genuinely squealing at that answer, by the way.
Kennedy’s Off Campus universe has already made it into a second generation, with characters like Garrett’s son, Wyatt, and Logan’s daughter, Blake, falling for each other in Love Song. When it comes to going that far into the Off Campus lore, Levy isn’t too sure. “Listen, I never say never. I love those books. They’re so fun, and we’ve already got the cast talking about putting on gray hair.” Levy laughed, “I don’t know if they’ll pull that off.”
Which Elle Kennedy character are you most looking forward to seeing in Off Campus? Let us know in the comments below!
Off Campus, Season 1, Streaming Now, Prime Video
