Audiences first fell in love with Anna Cathcart’s Kitty Song Covey in 2018’s romantic teen movie To All the Boys I Loved Before. Back then, the 11-year-old Kitty was instrumental in her older sister Lara Jean (Lana Condor) finding love with Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo). In the upcoming spin-off XO Kitty, the now 16-year-old decides to attend school in Seoul, and is reunited with the boyfriend that she’s been in a long distance relationship with for several years.
The showrunners of XO Kitty, Jenny Han and Sascha Rothchild, have explained on Tudum why Condor and Centineo won’t be returning for the spin-off; “We all fell so deeply in love with Lara Jean and her story. So it felt like the greatest gift to give to Kitty was to let her as a character kind of set off on her own two feet and not put her in the shadow of either of her sisters.”
“And Lana and Noah are both off and doing big things [Centineo recently appeared in Netflix thriller series The Recruit and Condor starred in science fiction movie Moonshot and Netflix fantasy series Boo, Bitch]. The whole To All the Boys family couldn’t be more proud of them and excited for all the things that come next. We’re all excited to see Anna [Cathcart] really pick up the mantle and continue Kitty’s story.”
The showrunners Han and Rothchild also think that the spin-off stands on its own, if you haven’t seen the To All the Boys trilogy. “XO, Kitty is definitely its own thing. You could enter into this story just starting with XO, Kitty and be on Kitty’s journey as if you’re meeting her for the first time. She’s the big fish in a small pond, [and] she thinks she knows it all in Portland. Then she has a rude awakening when she’s put in a new place like Seoul. That’s very relatable and universal.”
“XO, Kitty takes place in the same universe as To All the Boys, but it’s very much its own world. So fresh audiences can love it and then go back and watch the movies and read the books if they want.”
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