"The Summer I Turned Pretty" has been a huge hit for Prime Video and has grown into a cultural phenomenon in its own right, but with season 3, the show will be coming to an end. Surely a series as popular as this wasn't cancelled, so what on Earth are the Prime Video execs thinking? Well, fans can at least rest assured that the sun-kissed coming-of-age series didn't get the axe. Why, then, is "The Summer I Turned Pretty" wrapping up with its third season?
Prime Video has some of the best TV shows
available, from the stellar video game adaptation that was "Fallout" to the wildly popular "Reacher" series (which asks the question, "What if a big man punched a load of bad guys really good?" with a resounding, "It would be awesome"). But there's also plenty of guilty pleasure viewing to be had on Amazon's streamer, and "The Summer I Turned Pretty" is a prime (excuse the pun) example.
The romantic drama series was created by author Jenny Han, whose work was previously adapted for the "To All the Boys" Netflix film series. "The Summer I Turned Pretty" is based on her novel trilogy of the same name, which comprises 2009's "The Summer I Turned Pretty," 2010's "It's Not Summer Without You," and 2011's "We'll Always Have Summer." It stars Lola Tung as Isabel "Belly" Conklin, a teenager who finds herself at the center of a love triangle with brothers Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher, played by Christopher Briney and Gavin Casalegno, respectively. The resulting drama has proved immensely popular, even with fans having to wait two whole years between seasons 2 and 3 of the show. Now, however, "The Summer I Turned Pretty" is coming to an end. Why? Basically, because they ran out of books to adapt.
Read more: Every Actor Who Has Played Nosferatu (And What They Look Like Without Makeup)
Season 3 Of The Summer I Turned Pretty Completes The Novel Adaptations
"The Summer I Turned Pretty" premiered on June 17, 2022, with a seven-episode debut season that Amazon evidently felt quite confident about, as evidenced by the fact the company renewed the show for a second season ahead of the series premiere. That second season arrived a year later on July 14, 2023, and was an even bigger hit than the first. Amazon claimed that season 2 of "The Summer I Turned Pretty" became one of the 10 most-watched seasons of any series on Prime Video, and had doubled the viewership of season 1 when it premiered on July 14, 2023. What's more, season 2 became the number two most-viewed series among women aged 18-34 at the time, trailing only "Rings of Power." It also helped Prime Video in the all-important subscriber acquisition category, placing among the top 3 series for global subscriber growth.
As expected given the show's popularity, in August 2023, Prime Video renewed "The Summer I Turned Pretty" for a third season. But fans would have to wait as the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes (which ended in victory for everyone) commenced almost immediately after Amazon greenlit the final season, delaying production for months. At the time, head of television at Amazon and MGM Studios Vernon Sanders said in a statement that he was "excited" to "share the news that [fans] have a lot more 'Summer' to look forward to." That was only sort of true, as season 3 was to be the last bit of "Summer" fans would get.
With the aforementioned production delays, viewers ultimately had to wait two years for the third season of "The Summer I Turned Pretty," which eventually premiered on July 16, 2025. Two months before the season 3 premiere, Amazon confirmed that this would be the final installment in the series. As Variety reported, this wasn't exactly a bombshell announcement as the third season brought the book "We'll Always Have Summer" to the small screen, thereby wrapping up the project of adapting Jenny Han's three novels. But for the considerable fan base, this wasn't exactly welcome news.
Is This Really The End Of The Summer I Turned Pretty?
"The Summer I Turned Pretty" ending will surely be a difficult pill to swallow for the show's devoted fans, but there are reasons to be optimistic. For one thing, Jenny Han and her production company, Jenny Kissed Me, signed a multi-year deal with Amazon Studios in 2022, which means there could be more Han-brand romances to come. This also bodes well for the author repeating her Netflix approach at Prime Video. The writer previously oversaw a spin-off series based on the "To All the Boys" Netflix films entitled "XO, Kitty." There's no reason why she couldn't do the same with "The Summer I Turned Pretty," though there have been no official announcements in that regard as of this writing.
There have, however, been some promising updates. In July 2025, Amazon MGM Studios head of TV Vernon Sanders told Variety, "Once the full [season 3] is released, we'll be able to have more conversations with [Han]. She's got new ideas that she's been dying to tackle. So whatever Jenny wants to do, we want to do it with her." It followed similar comments Sanders made to Deadline in 2023, where he teased that the show would "continue to be a huge centerpiece for us" and that he and the Prime Video team "absolutely have plans to continue building it." Sanders added, "Jenny's got great vision for where she wants to go with all of it, but we're already hard at work developing complementary pieces [...] we're thrilled about a season 3, and she's got a vision for more." With the season 3 premiere bringing in 25 million viewers within the first week of its debut, it would seem silly for Prime Video and Han not to push ahead with those plans.
But for those feeling bereft in the wake of the show's demise, there's plenty of other guilty pleasure viewing to be had. The teen melodrama isn't exactly a scarcity, which means there's a whole bevy of shows like "The Summer I Turned Pretty" for fans to binge. There are also plenty of films to satisfy your romantic drama needs, such as Netflix's "My Oxford Year" (though be warned, it's controversial ending is a tear-jerker). Or, to stay in the Han-created territory, there's the gold standard of modern teen rom-coms, "To All the Boys I Loved Before." That should be more than enough to tide fans over until we hear more from Prime Video about potential spin-offs.
If you're looking for the easiest way to keep up with all the major movie and TV news, why not sign up to our free newsletter?
Read the original article on SlashFilm.
