Nothing riles up a fan base quite like a love triangle.
After the massive success of their hit series “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” creator Jenny Han and stars behind the Amazon Prime Video show are very aware of this fact.
The show, which is based on Han’s popular books, follows teens Belly Conklin (Lola Tung), and brothers Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) and Conrad Fisher (Christopher Briney). The childhood friends find themselves entangled in a messy love triangle that plays out during their summers together at the fictional Cousins Beach. It’s a storyline that’s sparked a battle between “Team Jeremiah” and “Team Conrad” fans online, with thousands posting TikTok videos analyzing scenes or dissecting every character’s decisions in an active Reddit thread dedicated to the show.
But ahead of the third and final season’s debut this week, the show issued a strong message to its millions of viewers: Don’t take your “shipping” — or supporting a romantic pairing between two characters — too far.
In a public service announcement on its social media pages on Monday, the show warned fans that it has a “ZERO tolerance policy for bullying and hate speech,” adding that if fans engage in “hate speech or bullying,” “targeting our cast or crew” or “harassing or doxxing members of the community,” they “will be banned” from the “Summer” community.
Toxicity within fan culture is not new — for years, many have debated whether online fandoms have crossed the line when it comes to their parasocial relationships with celebrities and fictional characters. However, it appears more efforts are being made to protect the people who face the backlash. “The Summer I Turned Pretty” message came just weeks after the show “Love Island USA” issued similar guidance to fans of the Peacock dating show in the wake of cyberbullying toward contestants.
Networks, platforms and producers are “in this constant dance” with their audiences, said Abigail De Kosnik, an associate professor at the Berkeley Center for New Media at the University of California, Berkeley.
These types of shows are intended to be popular and attract millions of viewers, “that’s what television is for,” De Kosnik said.
But those behind the scenes now “also are trying to put some guardrails around them [the shows] to protect the talent,” added De Kosnik, who studies fandoms and social media. “They’re trying to protect the rare commodity that they are selling, which are these people, these performers.”
They have “tried many, many different tactics over the years, from doing absolutely nothing, to like being very clear about what the rules are for engaging with their celebrities,” De Kosnik said.
It’s unclear whether such efforts can work.
In the case of “Love Island USA,” while some were supportive of the PSA, others continued to cyberbully contestants online all the way up through the Season 7 finale.
“The Summer I Turned Pretty” had not previously issued an official PSA to fans.
Han’s book series had its own massive fandom before getting adapted for TV. But after Season 1 dropped on Amazon Prime Video in 2022, the show transcended into the mainstream. It became the No. 1 show on Prime in its premiere weekend, Variety reported at the time. Within three weeks, the hashtag #TheSummerITurnedPretty had amassed more than 1.3 billion views on TikTok. All three of Han’s books in the series also shot to the top of the Amazon Bestsellers’ list.
The surge in popularity drew additional scrutiny, with some in the fan community extending their criticisms of the plot to the actors portraying the characters.
Following Season 2’s release in July 2023, Elsie Fisher, the actor who played Conrad and Jeremiah’s cousin, Skye, received tons of hate from fans, who called them “annoying,” “cringey” and “ugly.” Many also also misgendered the star, who is known for their breakout role as Kayla in Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade.”
As Reddit threads and TikTok became populated with homophobic comments, Han addressed the fans in a statement on her Instagram story, saying the “hurtful comments directed at cast are not in the spirit of the show.”
Fisher did not issue any public statements surrounding the online hate. A representative for the actor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fans have also criticized Casalegno, who plays one of the Fisher brothers. Some online have analyzed clips of the show’s press tours and speculated that Casalegno is disliked by the rest of the cast.
None of the cast members have commented on the unsubstantiated rumor, and Casalegno has continued to appear in group promotional material surrounding the show. A representative for Casalegno did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For some fans of the series, the PSA signaled that those involved with the show wanted to get ahead of any potential backlash after encountering past issues.
“Number one, what happened on ‘Love Island’ obviously …. people are becoming way too parasocial and you need to touch some grass,” said TikTok user bookbeedani in a video about the PSA to her 189,000 followers.
“Number two,” the creator, who is known for her videos about books and crafts, said, “I do remember there was an interview recently with Jenny and Lola talking about how they potentially altered the book and the ending … and so I worry they are changing the ending…”
Other fans, like TikTok creator thesimplysimone, also likened the situation to “Love Island USA.” But they had no idea how far the harassment toward “The Summer I Turned Pretty” cast had gone.
“Y’all this is a YA show,” the lifestyle influencer, who often posts about books and culture, said in a video to her 412,000 followers. “But I’m glad they put this out there, especially with the show being as big as it is. And I really wish that other shows that are on air, or have aired in the past, have done something like this, especially in the era of social media.”
Since the first two episodes of Season 3 dropped at midnight, fans have already posted their reactions to social media.
The show and its cast, of course, anticipated heightened engagement.
“I think we see with a lot of these love-triangle stories, people want the leading girl to end up with someone,” Tung told Teen Vogue on July 10. “When people have an attachment to the characters, they want to see it come together at the end. I’m so grateful that they care so much, but people get a little scary about it. Please don’t threaten to kill someone if something doesn’t go your way — I promise you, it’s not that serious. Jenny [Han] is so smart and she cares so much about the story and making it the best story that it can be. It will be OK.”
“The Summer I Turned Pretty” social media accounts echoed a similar message, writing in the PSA, “Cousins is our safe place. Everything good, everything magical. Let’s keep the conversation kind this summer.”
