Prime Video’s Cruel Intentions debuted on November 21, 2024, with all eight episodes of the inaugural season. It is inspired by the 1999 namesake movie featuring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Reese Witherspoon. While the series hasn’t yet been officially greenlit for Season 2, showrunners Phoebe Fisher and Sara Goodman discussed how they would approach it in a recent interview.
Phoebe Fisher and Sara Goodman on maintaining the ‘essence’ in potential Cruel Intentions Season 2
Fisher and Goodman reflected on the prospects of Cruel Intentions Season 2 in a new interview and what they would like to accomplish with the story if Prime Video renews the show. The series is not a scene-by-scene adaptation of the 1999 movie, which was based on the 1782 novel Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.
The characters in the show are not the ones that Gellar and the others played in the movie. For the most part, the TV series characters are different renditions of their movie counterparts and don’t share names, just like the characters in the movie are different versions of those in the novel.
While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Goodman mulled over the impact their narrative choices could have on Season 2. “We’re really hoping that people fall in love with it for what it is and that they want to go on this journey with these characters in this world, wherever it’s going to take us,” she said. “So will there be shoutouts? Of course, we love all of that stuff. But we’re already eight hours into an hour-and-a-half movie.”
Goodman underscored the importance of maintaining the “essence” of the characters, tone, and taboo in the adaptation. “All of those things that made all of the previous incarnations so delicious and despicable will continue, and we will make our own path while still maintaining a bridge,” she added. “There’s always going to be a bridge. It’s still his car. She still has the cross necklace.”
Fisher and Goodman also explained that the ending of Season 1 was consciously left at a stage where the story could continue, and they could explore further the inner dynamics between the characters.
Sean Patrick Thomas, a cast member of the movie, appears in the show. The showrunners expressed their desire to bring back more cast members if the series continues.
