Amazon Prime Video has warned fans of The Summer I Turned Pretty to “act normal” online after cast members were targeted with abuse and violent messages during the airing of its third and final season.
The hit coming-of-age drama, based on Jenny Han’s best-selling novels, returned to the platform last month, with new episodes dropping weekly.
As the series nears its finale, tensions between fans of the central love triangle, involving Belly Conklin (Lola Tung) and brothers Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) and Conrad Fisher (Chris Briney), have spilled over into toxic behaviour online.
According to producers, some actors have been harassed by viewers angry at their characters’ storylines, with social media posts including death threats.
In response, the show’s official Instagram account issued a second statement to fans this week, reiterating: “The show isn’t real but the people playing the characters are.”
The post, which included a video captioned, “The summer we started acting normal online,” reminded followers of the community guidelines first shared at the start of the season.
The guidelines at the start of the season warned of a zero-tolerance policy against “bullying and hate speech,” listing prohibited behaviour such as targeting the cast or crew, harassment and doxxing.
Han, who serves as showrunner and executive producer, echoed the message on her own channels at the time.
“I know fans of the show are passionate and no one has bad intent, but even in jest, posting images of a woman being slapped or choked is not funny,” she wrote.
The warning follows comments from Gavin Casalegno, who spoke about the criticism his character Jeremiah has attracted from viewers online - and even from brands publicly aligning themselves with “Team Conrad.”
In a recent interview with The New York Times, he said: “They tend to dislike him, yes. I don’t check Instagram anymore, so I really haven’t seen that much hate.
“The only thing that I see is my sister sending me the memes that are really funny. I think it’s important to also understand and realise that this is a fictional story — and it’s also not me. I don’t think there’s a single human being in the world who can carry the emotional negativity to the degree that stuff like this happens.”
“And I think that’s why Amazon did a good job of stepping in and being like, ‘Hey, no bullying.’ Though, not really going so well,” referring to the message posted by the show’s official social media account ahead of Season 3.
The Summer I Turned Pretty, which debuted in 2022, quickly became one of Prime Video’s most popular series.
The Gen Z romance with a millennial feel has drawn huge audiences while sparking heated debates over whether Belly should end up with Conrad or Jeremiah, dividing viewers firmly into two camps; ‘Team Conrad’ or ‘Team Jeremiah.’
The final season, set four years after the events of season two, finds Belly preparing to marry Jeremiah as Conrad attempts to win her back.
With just a few episodes left, the streamer has urged fans to keep their passion for the storyline away from personal attacks on the stars.
The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video now.
