As we learned last month, the ’90s-set thriller “Cruel Summer” has been renewed for a second season by Freeform, but today brings an interesting update on that particular story.
Via The Hollywood Reporter, “Cruel Summer” creator Bert V. Royal is no longer involved with the series, and what’s particularly interesting here is that Royal actually walked away from the series *last year*, after only the debut season’s pilot episode had been shot.
THR reports, “Royal received a created by and exec producer credit on season one of Cruel Summer and was compensated for all 10 episodes of the thriller despite the fact that he chose to walk away from the series after the pilot in August/September. Sources note that Royal grew frustrated after repeated clashes with an exec at the network during the pilot process and walked away from the 1990s-set drama starring Olivia Holt.”
Today’s report continues…
“Sources note that Royal, who was credited as a writer on multiple episodes of Cruel Summer including the season one finale, chose to forgo any back-end profits that could emerge from Cruel Summer. It’s unclear if he will be compensated for the recently ordered second season of the series, which counts Jessica Biel and showrunner Tia Napolitano as exec producers. Napolitano, it’s worth pointing out, boarded the show after the pilot.”
The series “takes place over three summers in the ’90s when a beautiful and popular teen goes missing, and a seemingly unrelated girl transforms from a sweet and awkward outlier to the most popular girl in town, eventually becoming the most despised person in America.”
“Each episode is said to be told from the POV of one of the two main girls (Jeanette and Kate), which will have the viewer’s loyalties constantly shifting as more information is revealed.”
The series stars Olivia Holt, with Chiara Aurelia, Michael Landes, Froy Gutierrez, Harley Quinn Smith, Allius Barnes, Blake Lee, Brooklyn Sudano and Sarah Drew.