The news came via an announcement by the After film franchise's stars Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin, who Girlfriend chatted to ahead of the release of After We Collided.
So what does this mean for our favourite troubled couple? Don't worry, we've done the digging for you. While we don't know for sure if the films will exactly follow the plot of Todd's next two books in the series we reckon they're a pretty good road map.
What will happen in After We Fell?
The next two novels in Todd's series again follow the intricacies of Tessa and Hardin's relationship, meaning Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin will be reprising their roles. The novel After We Fell opens after the cliffhanger ending of After We Collided, where Tessa runs into her estranged father. You can read a snippet of the book's blurb below:
Tessa’s life as it begins to come unglued. Nothing is what she thought it was. Not her friends. Not her family. The one person she should be able to rely on, Hardin, is furious when he discovers the massive secret she’s been keeping. And rather than being understanding, he turns to sabotage.
After We Fell summary:
Okay so, once again the plot of After We Fell is dramatic, but mainly showcases the fraught dynamic between Tessa and Hardin. Tessa tries to reconcile with her father, though Hardin warns her against this idea, and ends up letting him stay at her and Hardin's shared apartment. Tessa sees similarities between her father who struggles with addiction and Hardin's father, Ken, who struggles with alcohol and is separated from Hardin's mother.
The trouble with Tessa's dad informs the plot of After We Fell and the other 850 pages are filled with friendship drama, Tessa struggling with her desire to move to Seattle and yet hold onto Hardin, and the pair struggling with their relationship dynamic.
The novel goes to some extremely concerning places, which obv we'd say should never fly in an IRL relationship. Hardin sabotages Tessa's apartment rental in Seattle just days before she's supposed to move there for her dream job, uses another girl (who happens to be queer) to make Tessa jealous and they ultimately have a massive break up. There's also quite a harrowing moment where Tessa's supposed friends drug her and film her being sexually assaulted as part of a "revenge" plan.
Like the previous books, it ends with a cliffhanger. Turns out, Hardin's dad is not actually Ken, but Christian Vance (yes, of Tessa's job at Vance Publishing) who was his father's best friend in college while they all lived in England. Hardin catches his mother kissing Vance on the day she was supposed to marry someone else. And because it's Hardin, you unfortunately know he's not going to handle this super well.
What will happen in After Ever Happy?
The final novel in the series is another whopper, sitting at over 500 pages. After Ever Happy covers off the aftermath of the discovery at the end of After We Fell and over ten years onwards of Hardin and Tessa's life together, so yes, despite the drama they do stay together. You can read a snippet of the book's blurb below:
When a revelation about the past shakes Hardin’s inpenetrable façade to the core—and then Tessa suffers a tragedy—will they stick together again, or be torn apart? As the shocking truth about each of their families emerges, it’s clear the two lovers are not so different from each other.
After Ever Happy summary:
After discovering his dad is actually Christian Vance, the publisher and not Ken, Hardin loses it. He boycotts his mother's wedding, dumps Tessa while they're in London for the wedding, brawls and sets his childhood home on fire. Meanwhile, a broken Tessa is trying to deal with the news that she likely won't be able to have children.
She leaves London alone, going home to their apartment to pack it up only to discover her father's corpse. She's alone, bereft without Hardin and her mother. In her grief, Tessa curls up beside the body and holds on to it, eventually coming out of her disconnected state at her mother's house a few days later.
The rest of the novel spans decades, following Hessa through engagements, miscarriages, parenting and more. (Yes, ofc Tessa is ultimately able to have children, this is still a romance story.) We're intrigued to see how this will be handled, perhaps aging makeup and special effects for Langford and Tiffin? It's also a big expanse of time, so fans will likely see quite different versions of Tessa and Hardin as they grow and go through life together.
When will After We Fell and After Ever Happy be released?
At this stage, given After We Collided is still yet to be released in the U.S., we reckon there might be a bit of a wait until the third and fourth film in this series.
We do know that a new director will come on board for them, per Deadline. Cruel Intentions director Roger Kumble is passing the torch to director Castille Landon, who recently worked on a Fear Of Rain, with Katherine Heigl and Harry Connick, Jr.
We'll keep you posted on all things After as we hear it, but if you're desperate for another romantic film to fill the void, may we suggest Banana Split? It's being described as The Kissing Booth but better and happily stars After We Collided's Dylan Sprouse.
