Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists

Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists is an upcoming spin-off of Pretty Little Liars, based on the Sara Shepard book series, "The Perfectionists". It is being adapted by Marlene King. It was green-lit for a pilot order by Freeform on September 25, 2017, and later picked up to series on May 15, 2018. Sasha Pieterse would reprise her role of Alison DiLaurentis, and Janel Parrish would reprise her role as Mona Vanderwaal in the upcoming spin-off.

Plot
Fans of Pretty Little Liars have a new mystery to solve, and this time it involves a murder in the college town of Beacon Heights, where everything is not as perfect as it seems. Featuring the return of series stars Sasha Pieterse (Alison DiLaurentis) and Janel Parrish (Mona Vanderwaal), the series tells the story of a town of overachievers who are under an intense amount of pressure to succeed. When their high-stakes college environment pushes them to a breaking point, someone snaps and kills someone. As they work together to solve the murder mystery, it soon becomes clear that behind every Perfectionist is a secret, a lie – and a needed alibi. The mysterious drama, Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists debuts in 2019.

Main Cast

 * Sasha Pieterse as Alison DiLaurentis
 * Janel Parrish as Mona Vanderwaal
 * Sofia Carson as Ava Jalali: A stylish trendsetter with a big personality, Ava hopes to have her own clothing line someday. But she has an edge over her fellow fashionistas: a brilliant technological mind, which she uses to blog and code. Just don’t ask her why her parents recently fled the country — it’s her one big secret.
 * Sydney Park as Caitlin Park-Lewis : The intelligent, motivated and easy-on-the-eyes daughter of two over-achieving mothers, one of whom is a United States senator, Caitlin is an expert at hiding secrets. She hopes to follow in her mother’s political footsteps — that is, if the weight of her own secrets doesn’t crush her first.
 * Eli Brown as Dylan Wright : A prodigious cellist who used his passion for music to escape his small-minded hometown, Dylan loves his music almost as much as he loves his boyfriend, Andrew. (And even that’s up for debate.)
 * Kelly Rutherford as Claire Hotchkiss : The matriarch of the Hotchkiss family, Claire along with her husband is the founder of Hotchkiss Industries and the respected Beacon Heights University. She believes perfection is attainable and is the person who pulls the strings behind the scenes to get what she wants.
 * Hayley Erin as TBA.
 * Graeme Thomas King as Jeremy Beckett : A handsome Brit with more abs than you can count with just your fingers, Jeremy is also described as “charming and witty.” (Duh, he’s British!) What’s more, he’s also an intelligent scientist working for Hotchkiss Industries.
 * Chris Mason as Nolan Hotchkiss : A natural born leader, Nolan is the heir to his family’s empire. Though he puts forth the image of a golden boy, Nolan is actually a manipulator who uses his friends and family to maintain his image. Not a big fan of authority figures or the word “no,” Nolan isn’t used to losing.

Recurring Cast

 * Evan Bittencourt as Andrew: Dylan’s supportive and well-adjusted boyfriend of Dylan, who’s successfully navigating the world of the Perfectionists – for now.
 * Noah Gray-Cabey as Mason: A smart and athletic fellow student at Beacon Heights University. Mason is a natural born leader who can charm his way in and out of most situations, but there is something about him that keeps people guessing.
 * Klea Scott as Dana: The new head of security at Beacon Heights University, who is determined and perceptive almost to the point of omniscience. After recent events, she keeps Alison (Sasha Pieterse), Mona (Janel Parrish) and our Perfectionists on their toes.
 * Bransen Sands as TBA
 * Sarah Siadet as TBA
 * Garrett Wareing as Zach: a BHU sophomore currently working three jobs to stay in school, and still manages to maintain stellar grades. His tough exterior hides a sensitive soul who can make anyone melt.
 * Phillip Rhys as Michael: A smart and charismatic businessman who is keeping secrets of his own and has a tie to one of the Perfectionists.

Trivia

 * The show was almost adapted twice, although, both times it was not a PLL spin-off.
 * The first known news of an adaptation came in 2013 before the book itself was published. The CW picked up the rights for the show and planned to air it as a, "drama series project from Alloy Entertainment and Warner Bros. TV". Once the book was released, the plans eventually fell through and the rights were out of their hands by 2014.
 * The second time the series was almost given an order, was in 2014 when I. Marlene King acquired the rights to the show the month the book came out. ABC Family planned to release the series on their network. There was no news of the show for four years.
 * Marlene King teased about a possible spinoff with links to Pretty Little Liars in June, saying "You know there might be some truth to that, but my hands are tied and I'm not allowed to talk about it just yet. So hopefully we will get to share some news soon!" . It was soon revealed that it would be a complete merge of the universes of "Pretty Little Liars" and "The Perfectionists".
 * According to King, filming for the show begun in March.
 * In a September 2017 Dancing With The Stars Instagram Live chat, when asked about what show is about, Sasha Pieterse said, "It's about this perfect town... called Beacon Heights, and, um, there's this really rich family that owns the town basically [...] knows everything about everyone, and, um, their daughter is the first person to get, um... the first person to die basically, as an accident or maybe not an accident in the town, and so everyone kinda freaks out." . However, she does state that Marlene "can obviously change it".
 * Production of the show began on February 21, 2018.
 * The show will pick up a year or two after the events of the Pretty Little Liars finale.
 * Pretty Little Liars may not have any connection to The Perfectionists as, according to Sasha Pieterse, her and Janel Parrish's characters are, "kinda just being put into it.
 * Janel Parrish, who plays Mona Vanderwaal, knew about the spin-off for a year, and was the first cast member to find out about the spin-off.
 * On December 4, 2017, it was confirmed that Alison and Mona were going to be billed as series regulars.
 * Currently, Caitlin Park-Lewis, Ava Jalali and Nolan Hotchkiss remain the only original characters from the books. . Caitlin's surname was altered slightly, Dylan Wright is a genderbent version of Mackenzie Wright while Jeremy Beckett is a version of Jeremy Friday.
 * It is also noted that Ava, Caitlin, and Jeremy's personalities have been altered from their book counterparts - Ava's never expressed a major interest in fashion or technology, Caitlin was the athletic girl yearning for a future in soccer while Jeremy was an average teenage boy younger than Caitlin.
 * Nolan is so far the only character to stay true to his book character - it is worthing noting, however, that he didn't maintain a friendship with either of the book Perfectionists, only with Parker Duvall.
 * When asked by a fan if "Bitchy Ali" and "Murder Queen Mona" will be a duo in the series, Marlene confirmed.
 * In an interview, Marlene revealed that one of the four Perfectionists introduced won't make it to the end of the pilot.
 * A few crew members from Pretty Little Liars have signed on to be part of the spin-off.
 * I. Marlene King created and adapted the series. She is also an executive producer, writer, and the showrunner of the series. She was previously all of those and more on Pretty Little Liars.
 * Charlie Craig joined the "Pilot" episode as the co-showrunner. He was the co-showrunner of Pretty Little Liars during the shows seventh and final season.
 * Lisa Cochran-Neilan joined the series as an executive producer. She was previously a co-executive producer, line producer, and producer on Pretty Little Liars throughout the series.
 * Joseph Dougherty joined Season 1 in an unreleased position. He was a producer, director, and writer on PLL.
 * Ashley Benson, who portrayed Hanna Marin, was set to direct an episode. She ended up shadowing director Shiri Appleby for the episode "Lost and Found" as preparation for directing her own episode in the potential Season 2.
 * Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum joined the series as both a director and an executive producer of the Pilot episode only.
 * According to Marlene King, the show will film on location in Portland and the Pacific Northwest as much as possible, to stay true to the books "moody and creepy" weather.
 * The show is using Portland’s Lewis and Clark College and Forest Grove’s Pacific University  for the fictional Beacon Heights University.
 * They have also shot around areas like Lake Oswego, Oregon.
 * Sara Shepard, the author of The Perfectionists book series, met the main cast in March.
 * A quote from the pilot was revealed by I. Marlene King, either told by Alison or Mona to the other: "What are you doing here?"
 * Another quote was released on July 21, 2018, and also told by either Alison or Mona to each other: "Did you learn nothing in Rosewood? There are no coincidences!"
 * At a recent PLL convention, it was revealed production starts February 21st, and filming starts in March.
 * I. Marlene King and Sara Shepard have confirmed that Emison will still be together in Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, despite Shay Mitchell not confirmed to be appearing as of yet.
 * According to Sofia Carson, the show won't premiere until 2019.
 * Lily and Grace DiLaurentis-Fields will make an appearance.
 * The table read for the Pilot occurred on February 26, 2018.
 * Critter Pierce will serve as the show's costume designer.
 * The details surrounding what Mona did with Alex Drake and Mary Drake will be revealed.
 * The rest of the cast was revealed on March 9, 2018.
 * Filming for the Pilot started on March 5, 2018, according to Sofia Carson in Portland, Oregon.
 * The pilot finished filming on March 27, 2018, according to the casts' social media accounts.
 * After filming for the Pilot wrapped, the cast and crew all received Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists t-shirts.
 * Sofia Carson describes the show as, "it's dramatic, it's dark, it's mysterious, it's romantic and full of secrets as the PLL world goes," as well as, "a sensation of being constantly watched as well, like there was in PLL, so there's the same essence of the story."
 * On May 3, 2018, editing for the Pilot episode was in progress. It was being edited by I. Marlene King and Lois Blumenthal.
 * The show was picked up to series on May 15, 2018, and was given a ten-episode order.
 * I. Marlene King hinted at the possibility of PLL character Addison Derringer and her friends making an appearance in the show.
 * In a People magazine interview, Janel Parrish confirmed that the show is more "classy than it meets the eye" and deep down it's edgier and more risqué than the beginning of Pretty Little Liars.
 * In a later interview with Just Jared Jr., Janel revealed that Marlene stated that the show adaption will be "quite different" from The Perfectionists books.
 * On November 28, 2018, it was announced that Garrett Wareing is set for a recurring role, where Wareing will play Zach, a BHU sophomore currently working three jobs to stay in school, and still manages to maintain stellar grades. He is described as having a tough exterior that hides a sensitive soul who can make anyone melt.