Pretty Little Liars may have announced it’s ending its run after the back half of season airs in early 2017, but executive producer I. Marlene King already has her next project ready to go, and the trailer for the new series dropped to coincide with PLL’s announcement that it would be ending. King’s next project stars newly out Bella Thorne in Famous in Love, based on Rebecca Serle’s books about a young actress who lands the role of a lifetime in a Twilight-esqe series of films that are based on a book series entitled Locked.
The series is all very self-reflexive what with the whole TV series based on a book series about a book series that becomes a movie series thing going on. PLL fans know that the series was born out of Sara Shepard’s wildly successful series of Pretty Little Liars books, so this formula bodes well for King and for Freeform, the network that still airs Pretty Little Liars and The Fosters.
The cast is comprised of all relative newcomers other than Bella (The Duff, Scream, Shake It Up!), but it’s worth noting that openly bisexual former Union J band member George Shelley, who rose to fame on X Factor, appears on the series.
Besides Bella and George adding some LGBT-ness to the show, the trailer reveals at least one girl/girl hook-up in the works.
So there’s hope that Famous in Love will feature some prominent queer characters, especially since PLL’s Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) and the many ladies who loved her, were a huge part of that show.
Famous in Love promises to be super-soapy, glossy, and over-the-top, but here’s hoping that, like PLL, it also offers up a whole lot of heart.
