We all practically lost it after Luke Benward dropped a major hint that he might be playing John Ambrose in the upcoming To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before sequel. And now, the actor has finally spoken out about the rumors. Um, can we all take a moment to try to imagine how epic it would be to see Noah Centineo and the Dumplin’ hottie together on-screen? Ugh, it seriously seems too good to be true.

Well guys, it turns out, it unfortunately is too good to be true. Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, the 23-year-old actor revealed that it’s not happening. Yeah, our hearts are breaking. “Honestly, I’m just messing around,” he told the outlet. “There’s nothing to it right now. I just like playing with people. People were getting excited about it, I thought might as well instigate a little bit. Yeah, I’m an antagonizer. I have been since I’ve been a little kid, so sometimes I can’t resist.”

As J-14 readers know, speculation first started that he might star in the sequel after he commented “Hmmmmmm” on Seventeen Magazine‘s post about who might star as John. It quickly sent fans into a frenzy, but unfortunately, it was just a false alarm. Ugh, Luke, you cannot play with our emotions like that!

Although the former Good Luck Charlie star was just messing around and he hasn’t been cast for the role, he did tell the outlet that he’s totally down to star in the film. “Hey, I’m not saying I wouldn’t love to do it. I’d love to. I’d love to work with [Noah],” he added. “I’d love to work with my boy. We’ll have to see how it shakes down, but I’m not opposed to it.”

In case you forgot, in the first movie, Lara Jean Covey wrote five letters to boys she used to love — one which was returned to her house since it was addressed to her camp, and three that got delivered to the boys in her school. But what about that fifth letter? In the film, Lara Jean explained that the final boy she wrote a love note to was John Ambrose McClaren, who she met at Model UN, so he didn’t live in her town. But the Netflix rom-com ended with him showing up at her door, flowers in hand, ready to stir up some drama.

So we can all safely assume that the much anticipated sequel is going to focus on what happens after John comes to town. But after the actor who played him in the first filmed confirmed on Twitter last month that he hadn’t been cast to play John in the second movie, it got a lot of fans wondering who will play the epic character. Not to mention the fact that leading lady Lana Condor, 21, revealed in the announcement video for the second movie that someone truly epic had been cast for the role. “What?” she exclaimed to a mystery actor on the other line. “You’re going to make the perfect John Ambrose!”

We went ahead and made a list of our top picks for the role, which you can vote on here. Guess we can cross Luke off the list!

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