Spoilers ahead for The Summer I Turned Pretty series and the book We’ll Always Have Summer. Stream all three seasons in full with an Amazon Prime subscription.
It was a bittersweet moment for fans of The Summer I Turned Pretty this week, as Belly’s love story came to an end in the series finale. Fans were left begging for more after the series offered a significantly more romantic conclusion than the books and Jenny Han provided. Hours after “At Last” hit the 2025 TV schedule, it was announced that a movie was on its way, and after reading what Han had to say about it, I think I know what’s coming.
I Think The Summer I Turned Pretty Movie Will Take From The Book Series’ Epilogue
It took until the very end of the 80-minute series finale, but at long last, Belly (Lola Tung) reunited with Conrad (Christopher Briney). After the confession every Team Conrad member was waiting for, the series ends with them returning to Cousins together, presumably a year or two later. Based on Jenny Han’s comments to EW about a “big milestone” left in Belly’s journey, my theory is that the movie will cover the events of We’ll Always Have Summer’s epilogue. In other words, I think we’re going to a wedding! Han said:
As I was thinking about third season, I really felt that the journey was so much about Belly’s coming of age and in order to fully tell that story, we need to get to her reunion with Conrad. And then it would’ve been like a quick tacked-on beat at the end to get to any of the stuff in the epilogue in the book.
Jenny Han took her time getting Belly and Conrad back together, and we only got limited time at the end of the episode when they were really back together. To squeeze in what she wrote in the third book’s epilogue would have done a disservice to the literal years that have been building to it. Han continued:
And I just really wanted to give its due. And we had also been through a whole season of Belly and Jeremiah’s [Gavin Casalegno] wedding and I wanted to have space for whatever the next step is.
I agree that this is the right move, because it was so important for the book-to-screen adaptation to give so much space to Belly’s journey post-Jeremiah. The finale showed how she really found herself after moving to Paris, where she no longer defined herself as being destined for one of Susannah’s boys.
What Happens In We’ll Always Have Summer’s Epilogue?
Speaking of Susannah Fisher, the epilogue from the third book in Jenny Han’s YA series opens with the letter she wrote to Belly before she died that was to be opened on her wedding day. The letter was introduced in the series in Season 3, but while we saw what was written in Susannah’s letter to Jeremiah (yikes, I mean Conrad!), we didn’t see Belly open her letter, which was a huge omission. I think we may get that in The Summer I Turned Pretty movie.
The rest of the epilogue takes place in the moments after Belly and Conrad say “I do,” with Jeremiah giving Belly a small wave as she jumps into a car with Conrad to get out of the rain. She blows him a kiss, and he smiles as he turns back to his date (Denise???). The newlyweds then drive to the beach, where they run — already wet from the rain — into the ocean, gleefully starting their lives together.
Could this be where Jenny Han takes us with the plot of the upcoming movie? I think there’s a more-than-decent chance. We’ve finally gotten Belly and Conrad together for good, so we should get 90 minutes or so to enjoy that “big milestone” with them, right?
A wedding also provides a great excuse to get the whole gang back together — including fan-favorite couple Taylor and Steven (Rain Spencer and Sean Kaufman, respectively) and, of course, Gavin Casalegno’s Jeremiah. I was a little disappointed we didn’t get to see the Fisher brothers come back together in the end, but hey, that’s what the movie’s for.
Of course, I could be wrong. However, Han specifically mentioning the book’s epilogue has me thinking I’m on the right track.
We still have a while to wait before we’ll see The Summer I Turned Pretty movie, as Jenny Han said they’re still in the early stages, but I won’t mind taking that time to reread the books, rewatch the series on Prime Video, and theorize about all the Taylor Swift songs they could use in it!
