Book to Movie, TV Show Adaptations: Changes Explained

Did you know that so many popular movies and TV shows were based on books — and there were some plot changes!

The Summer I Turned Pretty, for example, is a beloved book series by Jenny Han which has since been turned into a fan-favorite TV series starring Lola Tung (Belly), Christopher Briney (Conrad) and Gavin Casalegno (Jeremiah). When the first season premiered via Prime Video in June 2022, the show’s stars gushed to J-14 exclusively about the biggest changes from the book to the screen.

“I think it was really cool to sort of have his blueprint, I guess, while we were filming. But then, also recognizing that with the script and everything, it updated a little bit — it was changed a little bit,” Lola shared at the time. “Jenny was saying this before, but she always says to her readers — I guess I’ll just take her little line here — that you already have this version of your characters in your mind and that’s yours forever. It, for me, was obviously, I wanna make the readers happy and the viewers happy but I think it’s really important to not try to exactly replicate whatever there is in the book, you know what I mean? Or try to be whatever … I tried to bring myself to the character and make it my own.”

When it came to bringing Conrad to life, Christopher wanted to combine “these images and these ideas” from fans and put his own spin on it. “You sort of, you know, slam the two together,” the actor shared.

One major change from the book to the show was Belly’s debutante ball, which was not present in the novels.

“I think it’s so special,” Lola shared. “I talked to Jenny a little bit because I said to her, ‘What was the idea behind having this debutante ball plot?’ And she was like, ‘I think it’s such an actual representation of growing up because this is when, you know, girls are presented to society’ or whatever.”

Scroll through our gallery to uncover the biggest changes from these book to movie adaptations.

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‘The Princess Diaries’

In the Anne Hathaway movie, Mia Thermopolis’ royal father died in an offscreen accident. In the books, he has a health scare, but he’s still very much alive. At first, the book’s author, Meg Cabot, wasn’t on board with the change because Mia’s dad plays a big role in the books. But she changed her mind when the team working on the film revealed they were going to make the grandmother’s role larger for none other than Julie Andrews!

‘To All the Boys: Always and Forever’

Peter and Lara Jean’s dream colleges — and the ones they end up at — are very different from book to movie. In the movie, they both want to go to Stanford, and while Peter gets in, Lara Jean does not. She ultimately decides to go to NYU after her class trip to NYC. In the books, LJ and Peter want to go to University of Virginia. When Lara Jean doesn’t get in, she decides to go to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Fun fact: That’s where the book’s author, Jenny Han, went to college.

‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn’

One of the most intense part of Breaking Dawn — Part 2 was the big fight scene between the Cullens and the Volturi over Renesmee. Even though it was one of Alice’s visions, we still had to watch Carlisle get beheaded! In the books, this never takes place. The Cullens convince the Volturi that Renesmee won’t cause problems by introducing them to a 150-year-old vampire-human hybrid. We understand why the movie needed a little more action than that!

‘The Fault In Our Stars’

In both the book and the movie, no one could forget Hazel’s “I’m a grenade” speech. In the movie, the memorable line is said to Gus while they’re on the swings. But in the books, the line is spoken to her mom, and the speech is a little different. “I just want to stay away from people and read books and think and be with you guys because there is nothing I can do about hurting you,” she tells Mrs. Lancaster.