‘XO, Kitty’ Boss on Kitty and Min Ho’s Arc, Lara Jean, and Season 3

SPOILER ALERT: This submit incorporates spoilers for Season 3 of “XO, Kitty,” now streaming on Netflix.

Another season of “XO, Kitty,” another season of messy romantic selections set against the backdrop of a complicated personal faculty in Seoul, South Korea.

Created as a spin-off collection to Jenny Han‘s popular book and film franchise “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before,” “XO, Kitty” focuses on “To All The Boys” lead Lara Jean’s precocious youthful sister, the titular Kitty Song Covey (Anna Cathcart). Now streaming on Netflix, the present’s third season follows Kitty and her buddies as they deal with senior 12 months at the Korean Independent School of Seoul (Ok.I.S.S.).

“XO, Kitty” is the only present in the Jenny Han Cinematic Universe (as followers have dubbed her creations, which incorporates the Prime Video hit “The Summer I Turned Pretty”) that isn’t tailored from a guide collection. While Han created the project and served as the preliminary showrunner of “XO, Kitty,” Valentina Garza took over from Jessica O’Toole as showrunner and govt producer for Season 3.

A slew of characters have been launched to Kitty’s life in class, the main group consisting of Dae (Choi Min-yeong), Kitty’s ex-boyfriend and a part of the purpose she strikes to Seoul; Yuri (Gia Kim), Kitty’s frenemy-turned-best friend-turned-crush (for a time); Min Ho (Sang Heon Lee), now Kitty’s main love curiosity; and Q (Anthony Keyvan), Kitty’s best good friend and roommate to Min Ho and Dae.

Season 3 opens with a romantically charged second between Kitty and Min Ho, who enter an official relationship by the end of Episode 2, with Kitty working to get into NYU and Min Ho constructing his profession as an leisure supervisor. Elsewhere, Yuri, as soon as a wealthy heiress, loses her household fortune in a lawsuit and is compelled to start working and dump her garments to have the ability to afford her Ok.I.S.S. tuition. Meanwhile, the return of Marius (Sule Thelwell), the boys’ fourth roommate and Q’s secret closeted ex-fling, throws a wrench in Kitty’s plans and Q’s romance along with his boyfriend Jin (Joshua Hyunho Lee). Kitty’s household performs an even bigger function this season as nicely — her cousin Jiwon (Hojo Shin) takes on a educating function at Ok.I.S.S., and Lana Condor makes her extremely anticipated return as Lara Jean, relying on her sister amidst her relationship points together with her “To All The Boys” love curiosity, Peter Kavinsky.

“This is a season — for all our characters — that is so much about personal growth and being on the precipice of adulthood and figuring out who they are,” says Garza. And Kitty is the prime instance. After a mid-season break-up with Min Ho — as she falsely accuses him of getting their good friend pregnant — Kitty works on constructing her independence, committing to NYU for faculty. The pair has a dramatic reunion in the finale, swapping “I love you”s after a practice station chase, and ending the season with Min Ho flying again to Portland with Kitty.

Garza spoke with Variety about taking on Lara Jean and Peter’s relationship, introducing maturity into the present’s plotlines — and the unique ending to Season 3.

This season options Kitty and Lara Jean’s sisterly bond fairly closely. What was it prefer to deliver again Lana Condor and their relationship? Did you attempt to get Janel Parrish, who performs their older sister Margot, on-board as nicely?

We did have Margot featured in Season 2, in addition to Peter. We wished to up the ante and go larger this season and deliver again Lara Jean. It just felt like a pure escalation, and it was a possibility for Kitty and Lara Jean to essentially lean on each other as they have been going by private points, and bear in mind how a lot they can study from one another.

Speaking of Peter, Noah Centineo doesn’t make an look this season, however his relationship with Lara Jean is a part of a whole lot of her scenes. Was there ever a dialogue of him showing in the season together with her? How’d you deal with including to the story of such a beloved couple?

I positively consulted with Jenny Han about speaking about this couple and ensuring that she was pleased with what was going on there. We just wished to have a possibility for Kitty and Lara Jean to develop from one another. This season, for Kitty, was a lot about private progress, and Lara Jean is having her personal progress journey off-screen.

There are not any “XO, Kitty” books, however Kitty is a personality from the “To All The Boys” books and the film variations. There’s a nod to some earlier dialogue the place Lara Jean tells Kitty she’s “going to miss her a 12” on a scale of 1-10, one thing Kitty told LJ when she was leaving for faculty. Are there other references to the “To All The Boys” world in the present?

Yes! That is a reference to the motion pictures, and they’re mirroring each other’s relationship to at least one another as they’re each rising into themselves. We have some little Easter eggs in there throughout the season. We have the about the track “About Love” from Marina, which is a callback to the motion pictures as nicely. [The song appeared in the final scene of “To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You.”] There are little issues for our viewers that is watching fastidiously. Kitty picks up a pen to start writing her senior sundown record, which was gifted to Lara Jean by Peter, who purchased it in Korea when he was with Kitty [in Season 2].

Kitty and Min Ho lastly get together at the starting of the season, and every episode, there’s a hurdle that they’ve to beat. Was that intentional to set them up for that larger breakup that occurs mid-season?

I don’t know if we have been attempting to provide them hurdles, however Kitty and Min Ho are each also going by their particular person progress journeys. This is a season — for all our characters — that is a lot about private progress and being on the precipice of maturity and figuring out who they’re. So, I feel that a whole lot of those hurdles are actually coming from the journeys that they’re going on, as they’re discovering who they’re and what they need, and asking questions about what the future holds for them as people.

The incident that instigates their break-up is fairly dramatic, with Kitty pondering Min Ho bought Eunice pregnant. Why did you select to have her react like that and bounce to conclusions?

Kitty is studying to not let her personal insecurities get the best of her. From the starting of the season, when she’s seeing the approach that he’s interacting with these Ok-pop stars, I feel she’s feeling a little bit bit insecure, and that’s type of a second the place she reaches peak insecurity. It’s also a little bit little bit of a basic misunderstanding trope in the case of first loves. Things are just not going the approach that Kitty expects them to go, and she is having to study to let go of those expectations. That’s another actually big theme for her this season.

We’ve talked lots about this season being targeted on the character’s private strategy, together with their relationships. Did you prefer it was important for Kitty and Min Ho to interrupt up and undergo their very own character arcs before coming again together?

I feel so. Kitty enters her senior 12 months with this good plan for what an ideal 12 months seems to be like for her, and she has very particular expectations.  When it doesn’t appear to be what she thought, that actually shakes her, and for her private progress, she’s going to should study that life and love very not often observe a script, and she has to lean into the surprising.

One of the obstacles that presents itself is Min Ho’s good friend/former crush, Gigi, making an look. Kitty’s worries about their relationship don’t end up main wherever, and it’s the first season the place Kitty and Min Ho’s only love pursuits have been each other. Was there ever any dialogue about exploring the romantic facet of Min Ho and Gigi’s friendship?

What we actually wished was for Gigi to come back in and characterize his first love, which is one thing else that Kitty wasn’t anticipating — to have a ghost from his past are available in and crash into her current. It creates a possibility for her to take care of her insecurities and develop by that challenge. What we’re actually attempting to do is make it one thing that was touchdown on Kitty’s insecurities, however just isn’t essentially a actuality. It was less important to provide her an precise foil than it was to point out how she’s processing every thing.

What is that relationship going to appear to be in the future? Are there any points that you assume they’re going to have to beat?

I’m certain that’s a query that all our followers are asking! We’re all just attempting to live in the second and delight in Season 3 proper now. We’re very excited for the followers to see what we made this season, and we’ll just have to attend and see.

Yuri undergoes a fairly big character arc this season and is compelled to develop in a whole lot of methods. How did you resolve the place you wished to end her story in Season 3 — and getting again together with Juliana? Was that always the plan?

In Season 2, we left Yuri actually heartbroken and realizing that she has a whole lot of private progress that must occur. This season was very a lot about that for Yuri, and she’s coping with actually big issues. She’s misplaced her fortune. Her dad and mom aren’t in her life. She doesn’t know if she’s going to have the ability to come again to Ok.I.S.S. and isn’t planning to until Kitty sort of saves the day. But she’s actually working on herself and attempting to determine out, “If I’m not Yuri Han, the heiress, who am I?” This season was about her reinventing herself, however in the course of, she turns into someone who is ready to be worthy of that love and that relationship that she broke in the earlier season. So, it felt very full circle to have the ability to get again to that place with Juliana.

Marius’ character was a little bit of a plot twist, being considered one of the more overtly antagonistic characters, in the starting, at the least. What was the thought course of behind introducing him to the present? And was there ever any hope for his relationship with Q?

This season, we’re telling tales about first loves, and they’re very sophisticated and messy.  Marius introduces the concept of Q’s first love as nicely, in the same approach that Gigi does. It shakes Q’s confidence in his relationship with Jin and makes him ask himself some questions. It was another alternative to create a complication for Q and have him ask himself what’s actually important as he’s trying ahead to his future. For all of our characters — Kitty and Min Ho, Q and Jin, even Mihee and Madison — they’re all asking at the precipice of maturity and transitioning into this other part of life — are we going to be in each other’s lives? Marius is available in and helps complicate that query for Q and Jin, and finally, it’s a convincing sure for them.

Most characters have had a few love pursuits by this point in the present. The {couples} we’ve got at the end of Season 3 – can they be accepted as the present’s endgames? Including Kitty and Min Ho?

[Laughs.] I feel that they’re proper for each other proper now. I feel only time will inform what is going to occur in the future.

I really feel like I’m going to get an identical reply for this next query. But is the romantic side of Kitty and Yuri’s relationship carried out with? How do you know you wished them to be platonic this season and going ahead?

Kitty and Yuri are always going to be in each other’s lives. The journey that they’ve taken this season was very deep and very profound, even though it was platonic. At the end of the day, they’re winding up being household, because Yuri’s brother is marrying Kitty’s cousin, and in order that they have a new sort of familial bond that they’re forging, which is also actually vital.

The being pregnant storyline this season might be the most mature one the present’s had thus far. What was the inspiration behind that storyline, and how are you planning on tackling more grownup matters as they develop up?

We have been very intentional about writing a season that was more grownup and had a more grownup theme. All of our characters are on that precipice of maturity and transitioning out of being children and out of being in high faculty, pondering about the future and having to be adults. It appeared becoming that we’d have some barely more grownup themes, and so that being pregnant scare was consistent with that more mature content that we wished to have.

As you talked about, Kitty’s cousin Jiwon and Yuri’s half-brother Alex are in a relationship now, and Jiwon’s anticipating a toddler. How did you resolve that it was the proper time to deliver Hojo Shin, who performs Jiwon, as much as collection common and have her character be more of a presence this season?

With it being Kitty’s senior 12 months, considered one of her objectives is absolutely spending high quality time together with her household in Korea, because so far as she’s involved, this is her last 12 months at Ok.I.S.S., and her time with that household is coming to an end. We actually wished to deepen those relationships, because it’s a precedence for Kitty.

The present focuses on friendship closely. Are there any other friendships you’re trying ahead to creating on-screen?

We did have one second this season the place Min Ho visits Yuri at work, and we realized, “Oh, we don’t think we’ve had another scene this whole season, where we have these two characters playing against one another.” So that may very well be fascinating. Of course, they’re brother and sister in real life, and they don’t get to behave against each other. In the second, we have been all pondering, “Why don’t they ever interact on camera?”

The season ends with Min Ho chasing Kitty across Seoul and a really dramatic practice station reunion that jogged my memory of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” finale, which is also a Jenny Han present. In your thoughts, do the characters of these exhibits exist in the same world? Could there probably be a crossover sooner or later?

That could be a query that you’d should ask Jenny Han! But I’ll say that after I was watching the finale of “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” I said, “Oh no, they’re on a train too!” That was very surprising and serendipitous. For a whole lot of the season, that wasn’t what we have been anticipating to do. We did think about that there was going to be an epic race to the airport, however for most of the season, it was truly going to be Kitty racing to cease Min Ho from leaving. It was going to be a motorbike race by the metropolis on the again of Marius’ motorbike. But as the season developed, it turned clear that it was a part of Min Ho’s journey, that he was somebody who wanted to alter and make the overture in the direction of Kitty. Fun fact!

This interview has been edited and condensed.