Prime Video is making a return to Barry’s Bay.
The streamer announced on Saturday that its series Every Year After has been renewed for a second season. Season two will expand the Barry’s Bay universe and follow Fortune’s novel, One Golden Summer, while continuing to explore the fan favorite stories and characters from the first season.
Amy B. Harris will continue to serve as showrunner with Fortune continuing to serve as an executive producer. Lindsey Liberatore, Amy Rardin, John Stephens and Grace Gilroy will executive produce.
“The response to Every Year After has been truly extraordinary, underscoring the universal appeal of Carley Fortune’s storytelling and the deep connection audiences have formed with the world of Barry’s Bay,” Peter Friedlander, Head of Global Television, Amazon MGM Studios, said in a statement. “We’re incredibly grateful to Carley, Amy B. Harris, our exceptional cast and creative team, and the passionate fans who have embraced this series around the globe. We’re excited to return to Barry’s Bay and bring audiences another deeply emotional and unforgettable chapter.”
Sadie Soverall, Matt Cornett, Michael Bradway, Aurora Perrineau, Abigail Cowen and Joseph Chiu star.
The series renewal was first teased during an executive panel on Friday ahead of Prime Video’s Obsessed Fest with Friedlander. As quoted by Deadline, Friedlander said of another season, “I hope to have news on that soon.” He also acknowledged that “one success begets another,” when reflecting on how the success of their Off Campus series adaptation impacted Every Year After.
Season one of Every Year After followed Fortune’s New York Times bestselling story about how the relationship between best friends turned lovers Persephone “Percy” Fraser (Soverall) and Sam Florek (Cornett) once fell apart. A love story deconstructed and reconstructed across alternating timelines, their past becomes present when Percy returns to Barry’s Bay, the lakeside town where she spent her summers as a teen, and first fell in love with Sam, to attend the funeral of the Florek brothers’ mother. After reuniting for the first time in years, the two are forced to learn how to navigate each other again and confront a lingering secret betrayal.
“I think this season was about will they-won’t they, and next season will be about how will they,” showrunner Harris told The Hollywood Reporter about continuing Percy and Sam’s story. “Although I hope the audience feels like they’re coming to a happy ending at the beginning of season one, to me, it’s just the beginning.”
Though liberties can be taken for the second season, the season finale heavily teased that the story’s continuation would explore Fortune’s novel, One Golden Summer, centered on Sam’s older brother Charlie. During pre-production of the show, Bradway, who portrayed Charlie in the series, told THR that he, Cornett and Soverall joined Harris in her office where she offered a blueprint for her adaptation while expressing a desire to continue the story through One Golden Summer, should the show get a second season.
“Obviously Charlie hasn’t found his person yet, but we all know who that is,” he told THR when addressing his character’s grim cliffhanger ending.
A renewal of the project is no surprise, given the fanfare surrounding the source material and the author. Fortune’s books have sold 4.7 million copies, with Every Summer After spending 16 weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list, selling over 1 million copies to date, and finding a second life on BookTok. One Golden Summer spent 20 weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list and has sold nearly 1 million copies to date.
In addition to Every Year After, Fortune’s novels This Summer Will Be Different and Meet Me at the Lake are also set to be adapted by Netflix.
