Louisa Levy and Ella Bright explain how “Off Campus” brings Dean and Allie into Season 1 early, reshapes key book beats for NIL-era college sports, and teases where it heads next with Hunter Davenport.
The fake romance at the heart of “Off Campus” may be the hook, but Season 1 saves its real jolt for the moment the show pulls the curtain back on a relationship many viewers expected to meet later.
On Prime Video. the series adapted by creator Louisa Levy follows Hannah Wells (Ella Bright). a college student and aspiring singer-songwriter. who agrees to a fake relationship with Briar University hockey captain Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli) to win the attention of her crush. Justin (Josh Heuston).. Yet from the beginning, the show’s true engine runs on more than Hannah and Garrett.. It also braids in the secret. combustible romance between Hannah’s best friend Allie Hayes (Mika Abdalla) and charming defenseman Dean Di-Laurentis (Stephen Kalyn).
In Elle Kennedy’s novels, Dean and Allie’s story belongs to a separate book.. The television version. already streaming. folds it into Season 1 on purpose. leaving audiences shocked by the reveal at the end of Episode 5.. Episode 6 then rewinds to show how the two got there. and the remaining episodes make the point unmistakably: book fans are meeting Dean and Allie far sooner than expected.
Levy says that decision did not happen by accident.. Woven into the pacing is a more modern. post name. image and likeness (NIL) college sports reality that forces the show to alter some of the books’ most popular plot points.. The series also expands the ensemble in other ways. including adding Jules as Logan’s nonbinary sibling and campus commentator. a role that does not exist in the books.. And while Garrett and Logan are best friends. the show introduces sharper friction to that bond. along with an amplified simmering crush on Hannah from Logan that the source material does not emphasize as strongly.
But it’s the finale where “Off Campus” makes its boldest break from the page.. It positions Hunter Davenport (Charlie Evans) as a central figure in Dean and Allie’s conflict. an antagonist-shaped presence that plays differently than in the novels.. Hunter is stubborn. arrogant. and talented enough to play for Briar’s hockey team. yet he refuses to for reasons the series has not revealed.. Allie decides he’s exactly who she needs to make their deal work. even though she does not yet know his actual name.
The show also loads Hunter with backstory that links him to Dean’s sister Summer, who leads Kennedy’s “The Chase.” And because Dean is already at odds with Hunter before Allie even enters the arrangement, the season ends with a clear promise of conflict for what comes next.
For fans already comparing the show to the books. there’s another question lurking behind the spoiler-heavy buzz: does Season 2 simply shift the spotlight to Dean and Allie?. Canonically, Logan and Grace’s story from Kennedy’s “The Mistake” follows the Hannah and Garrett conclusion.. Still, Levy’s comments suggest the show may pivot quickly toward the fan favorites.
When asked whether theories about Dean and Allie taking center stage are correct, Levy told Variety she doesn’t want to spoil anything, but “I think book fans will be very excited about Season 2.” Bright, meanwhile, responded with a “convincing and enthusiastic nod.”
Those expectations come at a time when the series already has one of the most passionate pre-built audiences of any show this year.. Levy described the scale of that fandom as something she kept discovering along the way. even after the project was underway.. She said it was important to honor key moments from the books within the structure of eight episodes. leaning on Amazon executive Brianna Kaufman. described as the person who brought the book to Amazon and is a “superfan. ” and producer Annika Patton. also credited as a guiding voice when the script threatened to drift too far.
Bright recalled the way hockey romance hit the mainstream in parallel.. She had seen the series through BookTok and had some familiarity with the genre from “Icebreaker.” When she landed the role. she skim-read the book and quickly got swept up in Hannah.. She said she ordered the entire series after casting and read “The Deal” in one day. while holding off on “The Score” and “The Mistake” because she wanted to stay unspoiled until Season 2 was officially on the way.
Both Levy and Bright also spoke about the larger hockey romance moment sparked by “Heated Rivalry. ” whose popularity. they say. helped set the mood for a wider audience to join the genre at the same time as “Off Campus” arrived.. Bright said she binged “Heated Rivalry” in a day. then went looking for what was happening across the genre as the shows began to overlap in production.. She described meeting “Connor Storrie at a party” after the show took off. and the surreal sense of watching audiences fall for both the relationships and the sport.
Casting. the creators said. became a balancing act between what fans expect and what the story needs once the camera is rolling.. Levy acknowledged the backlash that can follow casting announcements, particularly when audiences notice age and intimate content.. She said she had a conversation with Bright before signing to ensure she understood what was coming. and that if Bright had not been ready. the production would have “pumped the brakes immediately.” On set. Levy said the show leaned on an intimacy coordinator. Kathy Kadler. who had conversations with Belmont and Ella and with all actors involved in intimacy work. focusing on what made each performer comfortable.
Bright. who joined the project when she had just turned 18. said nerves were unavoidable coming from a children’s show background.. Still, she described the filming process as deeply controlled and craft-driven.. “There is truly nothing inherently sexy about filming a sex scene. ” she said. adding that she and her co-stars were laughing between takes. and that after scenes wrapped they would head to craft services for donuts.
Other changes from the books are tied to story logistics rather than mere convenience.. Levy explained that the show runs on a semester-by-semester structure. with two seasons covering a full year. which allowed some timelines to stretch out.. That’s part of why. she said. the show shifts Tucker’s position among the brothers. and why Dean moves up.
The series also alters a specific romance beat that book readers immediately latch onto: the kiss.. Levy said the books feature Dean in that moment, but the show reassigns the kiss to Logan.. The change. she argued. supports the slow burn of Logan’s crush and lets the storyline play out in a way that matches what the character’s arc is meant to accomplish by this season.
Bright added that Hannah’s awareness of Logan’s feelings is likely nonexistent.. In her reading, Hannah is “completely in her own world” with Garrett.. Garrett might notice more because Logan is less subtle than he thinks. Bright said. but for Hannah. the kiss becomes a test meant to prove there is nothing there.. For Logan, she said, it means more.
The show’s emotional pivot. Bright suggested. arrives with a cluster of moments in Episodes 2 and 3 where Hannah cannot sort what is performance for Justin’s benefit from what is truly felt.. She pointed to the drunk Shakespeare scene as a turning point. describing how a conversation about what a song means to Justin lands with the surface-level answer that makes Hannah realize the difference between what she gets with Justin and the depth she found with Garrett.. The Thanksgiving scene. too. becomes another step. as Hannah first writes Garrett off and then comes to see the genuineness underneath his surface.
Beyond romance, the show also expands the surrounding world.. Levy said Beau has a bigger role in the series than in the books. in part because it gives the writers room to build out Dean’s world and show that hockey is not the only sport on campus. even if the football team is not especially good.. Beau also plugs into the frat dynamic that Dean and Tucker share with Justin. making it easier for the story to justify why Justin stays in their orbit despite not being a jock.
The addition of Jules reflects a similar logic: not everyone watching will understand what’s happening on the ice.. Jules functions as a narrator and campus commentator, offering commentary with personality rather than dry hockey coverage.. Levy described the character as “with their finger on the pulse of campus drama. ” and said it also lets the show keep the fake relationship storyline tethered to someone with inside knowledge. because Jules is the sibling of a hockey player.
Levy returned to the central theme of what the show wants to explore: secrets and what people keep from their closest allies.. She said adding tension to the Garrett-Logan friendship helps make their bond feel even more ironclad. because Garrett is hiding history with his dad even from his best friend.. In turn, she argued, Hannah becomes the one person who knows.. She noted that Hannah has not even told Allie about what happened to her. creating parallel layers of concealment between the two women.
That emotional complexity extends to Hannah’s trauma and how the series handles it.. Levy described conversations she had with Bright about depicting Hannah’s past without letting it define her.. Hannah. she said. believes she is broken. but does not want to be defined by that. and hiding it can end up defining her anyway.. The finale features a scene where Hannah finally tells Allie. and Levy said it was the same scene that made her cry during the chemistry read and then again on set.
Bright framed her own connection to the role as tied to the way Hannah’s struggle manifests as writer’s block.. She said Hannah’s attraction to Justin is partly because he can externalize what Hannah cannot yet express. and that the pop showcase becomes the emotional culmination. where Hannah finds the strength to sing her own song and stand alone onstage.
As audiences race through Season 1. the show’s most immediate promise is that Dean and Allie’s story is not merely a subplot.. Levy said weaving their romance into the season was a design choice from her first pitch to Temple Hill and Amazon.. She said it’s hard to invest in a couple from scratch. and she wanted viewers to know who they would be tuning in for.. Allie. she said. felt organic because she is Hannah’s best friend. while their romance in the book is a secret. making it more surprising to launch it quickly.
She also addressed why the show had to change two of the books’ biggest narrative plot points. including Hannah and Garrett’s breakup and a campus-wide hands-off law.. Levy tied the shift to the changing NIL environment for college athletes.. In the books. Garrett’s need for his father to pay tuition at Briar drives the breakup. but that no longer holds the same logic in a landscape where athletes can now make money off their image
and likeness.. She said the show therefore folds in Liquid IV as a storyline to show what NIL looks like for him.. That change. she said. created a knock-on effect: if Garrett is the one who breaks up with Hannah. it would not make sense for him to later tell her she is off-limits to everyone else.. The series, Levy explained, finds a different way to earn back that “fan-favorite moment” so it still tracks.
Bright called the revised breakup “more heartbreaking” because both characters are having their worst days at the exact same time, leaving no version where either could talk the other through it.
Hunter Davenport’s early arrival, Levy said, also comes from the novels’ internal universe.. Hunter exists in the “Off Campus” books before the Briar U series. and Levy said he felt important enough to pull forward.. He shares Dean’s world. she said. which made the wrench in Dean and Allie’s arrangement feel organic. and she added that Hunter is tied to Summer’s story in “The Chase. ” suggesting the writers plan to keep building those threads.
With Season 2 already written and production set to begin soon after the press tour, Levy said all eight scripts are completed and that the season has a “very exciting plan.” She did not share details, but made clear that she expects book fans to be pleased.
For Bright. the answer to the question of whether Season 2 will center on Dean and Allie was clear enough without saying it.. She smiled and nodded, the kind of response that reads like confirmation in this fandom.. And if Season 1’s ending has taught viewers anything. it’s that “Off Campus” is willing to move its most beloved surprises earlier than expected. even when it changes how long anyone has to wait for the next blow.
Off Campus Season 1 Dean and Allie Ella Bright Louisa Levy Prime Video NIL college sports Hunter Davenport