Prime Video held its first-ever Obsessed Fest over the weekend, showcasing some of its most exciting current and upcoming projects, including Off Campus Season 2, The Love Hypothesis, and Every Year After. In just one short day, the streaming service brought out stars from many of their fan-favorite TV shows and movies, both new and returning, to talk about the impact of the fandoms and the slate that is on the horizon in the coming months.
Sadly for all of the fans who were hoping Allie (Mika Abdalla) and Dean (Stephen Kalyn) from Off Campus would take the stage to announce a release date for the second season of Off Campus — which is currently in production in Vancouver, British Columbia — no such announcement was made. Prime Video did bring Abdalla, Kalyn, and the rest of the cast (as well as J-Lo but we’ll get to that later) but the actual announcements about Season 2 were kept to a minimum.
As for what Prime Video did share during the event, news and announcements were constant, including a first trailer for The Love Hypothesis starring Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman and a Season 2 renewal for Every Year After. Oh, and the Overcompensating gang came out to laugh around and share that Zedd will be making his way to Yates University for Season 2. All in all, it was a pretty packed day.
Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the first Obsessed Fest in Los Angeles…
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Prime Video Has Finally Found Its Niche and It’s YA Adaptations
Photo: Amazon MGM Studios If nothing else can be taken away from Obsessed Fest, we can comfortably say that Prime Video has figured out what people are coming to them for: adaptations of fan-favorite books. Seemingly becoming the leader in BookTok projects overnight, Prime has established itself as the place for authors to bring their popular young adult projects — or spicy teen/adult-ish novels — to be made into a TV show or movie. With Off Campus, Every Year After, Maxton Hall Season 3, and 56 Days hitting the streamer this year alone, it’s become apparent that Prime knows where their fanbase is and where they thrive. And with Elle, We Were Liars Season 2, and so many more on the horizon, they’re just getting started.
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Prime Video Is Going Global
Sophie Williams With the arrival of Your Fault: London and the upcoming Maxton Hall Season 3, it’s been clear for quite some time that Prime Video wants to whisk fans away on international trips and globetrot through storytelling. We can also point to The Summer I Turned Pretty series finale, which took Belly (Lola Tung) and Conrad (Christopher Briney) to Paris, France, although that was more of a one-off… but still! Even more important in this conversation is the inclusion of projects like Drawn Together and The Last Sunrise, which branch out into foreign language and overseas adventures.
Prime Video has long been looking for a way to bring international audiences into the fold and to expand interest in shows and movies set in different countries — even desperately attempting to launch Citadel into spinoffs set across the world — but it feels like this could be the first sign that they now know how they want to do it. Get the teens and tweens involved and you’ve got a winner.
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Off Campus Is King (And Queen)
Photo: Prime Video In the same way that HBO and HBO Max have gone all in on Game of Thrones and its subsequent spinoffs, Prime Video is putting all of its eggs in the Off Campus basket. The series scored 36 million views in the first 12 days of streaming, according to the streamer, and the number just keeps growing. In fact, nearly two months after the show dropped all eight episodes of the adaptation of The Deal, the series is still sitting in the No. 2 spot on the Prime Video charts.
Throughout Obsessed Fest, Prime Video positioned the series as the most anticipated panel of the day, closing out the festivities with a Q&A featuring the cast and showrunner, Louisa Levy. While that certainly would have been enough for the eager fans who flew in from around the world and packed the room like sardines, Prime doubled down on their commitment to the show as their top priority by bringing out Jennifer Lopez to open the presentation. Yes, that’s right, J-Lo came out to sing “On The Floor,” the song used in the Halloween episode of Off Campus. That is how much of a phenomenon the series is.
Given the show’s massive popularity in its first seasons alone, it should come as a surprise how much stock Prime Video is putting into the series. Much like The Summer I Turned Pretty, fans should expect to see crossover opportunities and merchandising with major brands, especially as we get closer to the holiday season and Season 2. Get ready to see a lot more of the Off Campus crew moving forward.
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Much to Look Four-ward To
Photo: Prime Video Two projects that were not discussed much but have all the buzz behind them? The Summer I Turned Pretty The Movie and Prime’s upcoming Fourth Wing adaptation, which have both been announced but have been mostly hush-hush since then. We know for a fact that the former of the two is already filming, while the latter has yet to make any major casting decisions, as producer Michael B. Jordan has stated they are focused on getting it right.
Mentions of either project were few and far between at Obsessed Fest, but they were certainly top of mind for fans in attendance. The short and sweet here is that both Fourth Wing and The Summer I Turned Pretty The Movie, even without being mentioned outright by organizers, are high priority with ubiquitous presences. I.E., you don’t need to mention these movies for Prime Video fans to be amped up for them.
Off Campus, Every Year After, The Summer I Turned Pretty, 56 Days, Maxton Hall, and Your Fault: London are all streaming now on Prime Video. The Love Hypothesis premieres on September 23.
