What to Know About 'We Were Liars': From Cast Details to Book Connections

Prime Video’s upcoming series We Were Liars sounds like the perfect summer watch.

In December 2022, the streaming service announced their series order of E. Lockhart‘s YA novel We Were Liars with producers Julie Plec and Carina Adly MacKenzie at the helm of the show.

“E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars is a gripping story centered on family, love, secrets and lies that is perfect for our Prime Video audience,” head of television for Amazon and MGM Studios Vernon Sanders said in a statement at the time. “Lockhart, Julie Plec, and Carina Adly MacKenzie are each brilliant at creating complex characters and we’re looking forward to teaming up with these incredible storytellers, along with Universal Television, to bring this show to life.”

Erin Underhill, president of Universal Television, also offered a glimpse at the plans for We Were Liars, adding, “This haunting psychological mystery from E. Lockhart has everything — first love, bougie family drama, and plot twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat!”

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Underhill concluded: “With Julie and Carina penning the series, the project couldn’t be in better hands. We’re excited to partner with Prime Video and Amazon Studios to bring We Were Liars to audiences all over the world.”

Prime Video’s adaptation is described as a “tragic love story and an amnesia thriller set on a privately owned island off the coast” of Massachusetts.

Keep scrolling for everything to know about We Were Liars:

Who Is Starring in ‘We Were Liars’?

We Were Liars stars Emily Alyn Lind, Shubham Maheshwari, Joseph Zada, Esther McGregor, Mamie Gummer, Caitlin FitzGerald, Candice King and more. David Morse, Asher Ali and Wendy Crewson were also cast in the show. In June 2024, Ali was recast for creative reasons with Rahul Kohli taking his place.

What Is ‘We Were Liars’ About?

The highly anticipated series is focused on the affluent Sinclair family, known for the idyllic summers they spend on their secluded island. Lead character Cadence (Lind) suffers from chronic migraines and memory loss after a head injury during one of her summers on the island. She later returns to unravel the dark truth of her family’s past.

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When Does ‘We Were Liars’ Premiere?

A release date for We Were Liars has not been announced, but filming started overseas in Nova Scotia during summer 2024.

What Else Have Julie Plec and Carina MacKenzie Worked on?

We Were Liars is the third time Plec and MacKenzie have teamed up on a series. They previously worked together on The CW shows The Originals and Roswell, New Mexico.

“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 said in a December 2022 statement about their upcoming project. “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.”

They continued: “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.”

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How Much of the Show Will Be Based on the Book?

Prime Video hasn’t announced that We Were Liars is a limited series, which means the TV adaptation could expand on Lockhart’s novel in order to stretch the story into more seasons. (The author is an executive producer on We Were Liars.)

“I think fans of the book are going to be very, very happy, because I think we hit all the marks and all the beats that the book does. And then we also expand the universe, layers upon layers upon layers to really make the adult characters really nuanced and really multi layered to set the stage for season 2,” Plec told Deadline in September 2024. “That theoretically is going to take us deeper into the moms’ lives as well and add another generation to the story.”

She continued: “The idea that anybody thinks that there isn’t an audience for this stuff blows my mind, because, in my opinion, it is the most enthusiastic audience, the most highly energized audience, and an audience that you can find young and grow over decades into being your audience for anything. I’m a big fan of really trying to nurture that fan base and that viewing base, because I think that if you catch people young with and make them fall in love with storytelling young, then they’re going to spend their lifetimes reading and watching TV and seeing movies and reading graphic novels and doing all the things that make somebody an audience member for life.”