If there’s been a Gossip Girl-shaped hole in your heart since the spinoff was cancelled in 2023, new series Cruel Intentions might provide just the right dose of mean girl scheming and high stakes drama to keep you going.
At the centre of Prime Video’s 2024 adaptation of the iconic 1999 Cruel Intentions movie, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Philippe and Reese Witherspoon.
The movie itself was adapted from the 1782 novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclo — is Caroline Merteuil, a sorority president with a god complex who will stop at nothing to be in control. Her collaborator-in-collusion is step-brother Lucien Belmont, whose primary weapon is seduction, and he isn’t afraid to use it. Their victim: new girl Annie Grover, an innocent good girl type who’s only just learning who she wants to become.
The series has all the makings of a good teen/young adult drama: gossip, dastardly schemes, romance, secrets, lies — all set in the cultish world of Greek life at American universities, which has seen increased pop culture interest since the rise of sorority rush-related TikToks.
“We obviously have seen and have thoroughly enjoyed the Bama RushTok videos, but we actually made the choice long before it became popular,” say Sara Goodman and Phoebe Fisher, writers and executive producers of the Cruel Intentions series. “We had initially picked fraternity and sorority life because it felt like it was a rarefied world similar to Upper East Side Manhattan, or the royal court, and a place that had its own rites and rituals that we all want a peek inside.”
Find out all the details about Cruel Intentions ahead of its November release date.
What is Cruel Intentions about? How is the show different from the Cruel Intentions movie?
While the central characterisations are similar to the 1999 film starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Philippe, Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair, everything from the story setting to the character names is different in this adaptation.
In the movie, step siblings Sebastian Valmont (Philippe) and Kathryn Merteuil (Gellar) make a cruel bet for Sebastian to seduce the headmaster's daughter Annette Hargrove (Witherspoon). If he wins, he gets to have sex with Kathryn; if he fails, she gets his sick vintage car.
The 2024 show transports this toxic plot to the hallowed halls of the fictional Manchester College near Washington DC, where Greek life rules the school, and Caroline Merteuil is a classic queen bee. After a hazing scandal damages the reputation of the school's fraternities and sororities, Caroline hatches a plan with her step sibling Lucien Belmont to get Annie Grover — the daughter of the Vice President of the United States — to pledge her sorority and be part of her plans for total domination.
“We really started as fans,” say Goodman and Fisher. “We wanted to keep to a world of wealth and privilege and preserve all the bad behaviour and taboo relationships, while taking advantage of the longer format to deepen our understanding of the characters and push all those boundaries further.”
Neal H. Moritz, who produced the original film, and Pavun Shetty of Original Film also executive produce the new series along with Roger Kumble, who wrote and directed the 1999 movie.
Cruel Intentions cast
We are hoping and praying for cameos from the movie's cast Sarah Michelle Gellar in particular, but it doesn't look likely – we're keeping our fingers crossed anyway.
Sarah Catherine Hook pays the iconic role of Caroline Merteuil, who rules the school with an iron fist as president of Delta Phi Pi. Hook recently starred in the lesbian vampire romance First Kill (alongside Imani Lewis), which had one season at Netflix before it was cancelled.
She has a big slate ahead of her, too, with roles in The White Lotus season 3 and the Emily Henry book adaptation People We Meet on Vacation, in addition to Cruel Intentions.
If you watched Max’s Gossip Girl reboot, you’ll surely recognise Savannah Lee Smith, the former NYU-Tisch student whose big break came as the quick-witted, cunning Monet de Haan. Now, she embodies a different kind of role in the naive Annie, who doesn’t seem to realise what’s coming for her until it’s too late.
“We loved Savannah in Gossip Girl, but Annie, her character in our show, is very different,” say Goodman and Fisher. “It really was her audition that blew us away, and while she still has that comedic edge, we’re excited for people to see her in this role.”
Rounding out the trio is Zac Burgess as Alpha Gamma fraternity member Lucien Belmont, the curly-haired mullet-clad Chuck Bass type who knows how to get what he wants.
Prior to Cruel Intentions, the Australian actor had a handful of smaller roles, including in the Netflix limited series Boy Swallows Universe.
Caroline’s right-hand woman and sorority social chair is CeCe, a “scattered genius” who also desperately wants Caroline’s validation. She’s played by Sara Silva (American Horror Stories, The Boys).
Their fellow Greek life students of note are Alpha Gamma senior member Blaise Powell (John Harlan Kim, 9-1-1), running his own set of schemes behind closed doors, and Scott Russell (Khobe Clark, Yellowjackets), a senator’s son who makes up for his lack of brains with boyish charm — and who is at the centre of the hazing incident.
And then for the non-Greek life major players, we have Beatrice Worth (Brooke Lena Johnson, You) — a noted sorority and fraternity hater who works in student media — and Professor Hank Chadwick (Sean Patrick Thomas, The Tragedy of Macbeth), a teacher at the university who will soon have a run-in with CeCe that might change everything.
Is there a Cruel Intentions trailer?
Yes, and there’s so much to unpack. In the trailer, we get our first glimpses of Manchester College and its various sorority and fraternity houses. Right off the bat, Caroline is in charge. “Being one of us means holding the key to any door worth entering," she monologues. "It's about getting what we want. And trust me, I always get what I want.”
She also sets up the stakes: Annie Grover pledging her sorority means Greek life won't be kicked off campus for bad behaviour. And if Lucien can pull it off, his reward is Caroline herself. But who will end up in the crosshairs of their plot?
The best part? The trailer unfolds with a remix of Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve playing throughout. The track was used with legendary dramatic flair in the movie, and we're glad the tradition has been carried into the TV remake.
How many episodes will Cruel Intentions have in season 1?
Eight! And luckily for us, they're all dropping at once.
Cruel Intentions release date
Cruel Intentions comes out on 21 November.
Where can I watch Cruel Intentions?
You can watch Cruel Intentions on Prime Video.
A version of this article was originally published on Teen Vogue.
