E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars is headed to the small screen, Variety reports.
Lockhart’s young adult novel, published in 2014 by Delacorte, follows a wealthy family that undergoes a personal tragedy, threatening to destroy it. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus called the book “riveting, brutal and beautifully told.” The book was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller and spawned a 2022 prequel, Family of Liars.
The Prime Video series will be written with Julie Plec (The Vampire Diaries) and Carina Adly MacKenzie (Roswell, New Mexico). Plec, MacKenzie, and Lockhart are among the series’ executive producers.
“We’ve been obsessed with this beloved story for years and for a while it seemed like it might be the one that got away from us,” Plec and MacKenzie told Variety. “But finally, we are elated to be bringing it to life with everyone at Prime Video and UTV, who are just as passionate about this twisty tale as we are. We’re also incredibly grateful that the author has joined our creative team behind the scenes. As die-hard book fans ourselves, we have one message to the many loyal readers out there: if anyone asks you how it ends…just lie.”
MacKenzie shared news of the series on Twitter, with a picture of two images, side by side. The first is a screenshot of one of her tweets from 2014, which was directed at Lockhart and reads, “Just read We Were Liars, wanted to say thank you. It’s going to resonate in my bones for a very long time. Thank you, thank you.”
The second image is a screenshot of Deadline’s story. “How it started -> how it’s going,” the tweet reads.
How it started -> how it’s going. @elockhart @julieplec pic.twitter.com/Y3NncW5Esd
— carina adly mackenzie (@cadlymack) March 21, 2023
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.