Pretty Little Liars: HBO Max Orders 'Horror-Tinged' Reboot — Watch Teaser

Michael Ausiello
·2 min read

The recently announced Pretty Little Liars reboot is bypassing Freeform and going straight (to series) at HBO Max.

The upstart streamer has officially given a green light to the project, titled Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, via a 10-episode order. The pickup comes three years after PLL wrapped its seven-season run on Freeform.

As previously reported, Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is shepherding the project, which is being billed as an alternate, “horror-tinged, coming-of-rage‘ version of PLL “set miles away from Rosewood” in a brand new town, with a new crop of characters.

“Twenty years ago, a series of tragic events almost ripped the blue-collar town of Millwood apart,” reads the official show description. “Now, in the present day, a group of disparate teen girls — a brand-new set of Little Liars — find themselves tormented by an unknown Assailant and made to pay for the secret sin their parents committed two decades ago. as well as their own.”

Aguirre-Sacasa’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina collaborator Lindsay Calhoon Bring will serve as writer and co-EP on PLL: Original Sin. In a statement, the duo said, “We’re such huge fans of what [series creator] Marlene King and her iconic cast created, we knew that we had to treat the original series as canon and do something different. So we’re leaning into the suspense and horror in this reboot, which hopefully will honor what the fans loved about the hit series, while weaving in new, unexpected elements.”

The original PLL starred Lucy Hale, Ashley Benson, Shay Mitchell, Troian Bellisario and Sasha Pieterse as a group of Pennsylvania teenagers being hunted — largely via text message — by a mysterious figure known simply as “A.” (And eventually as “AD” in the show’s later seasons.) The series based on young-adult books written by Sara Shepard.

In addition to airing for seven successful seasons on ABC Family/Freeform (2010–2017), Pretty Little Liars also birthed two short-lived spinoffs — Ravenswood, which aired from 2013 to 2014, and Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, which aired from March to May of 2019.

Launch Gallery: <i>Pretty Little Liars</i>: Where Are They Now?

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