Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for the finale of Every Year After.Every Year After is the latest romance novel adaptation to take Prime Video by storm. Based on Carley Fortune’s novels Every Summer After and One Golden Summer, the series follows Percy Fraser (Sadie Soverall), who returns to the idyllic Barry’s Bay after a death brings her back into the fold of the Florek family. Having spent her childhood summers in Barry’s Bay, Percy’s grown up with the Florek boys, Charlie (Michael Bradway) and Sam (Matt Cornett). As each year passes, Percy grows closer and closer to Sam and falls in love with him, but true love is never easy, and the two face a series of challenges, including one massive roadblock when Percy sleeps with Charlie one summer when Sam is away. Season 1 of the series ends on a cliffhanger, after Percy decides to return to Barry’s Bay and reconcile with Sam, while Charlie is struck with a heart attack while looking at a photograph of his past. We spoke with showrunner Amy B. Harris about the direction of the show beyond Season 1, and what that twist means for fans looking forward to Charlie’s story in One Golden Summer. We also spoke with Fortune, who revealed the book change that surprised her most and how she approached adapting her popular novels. Finally, Harris breaks down the complicated love triangle between Jordie (Joseph Chiu), Chantal (Aurora Perrineau), and Delilah (Abigail Cowen), and Fortune reveals whether another Barry’s Bay book is coming.
Amy B. Harris Reveals the Direction She Wants To Go for Future ‘Every Year After’ Seasons

“The happy ending doesn’t mean it ends, it’s just the beginning of something else…”

Matt Cornett and Sadie Soverall in Every Year AfterImage via Prime Video

COLLIDER: Amy, I know you have a five-season plan for this show, in an ideal world. So, how do you modify the story coming into it, knowing that you have the material in the novel, but then also an overarching plan for where you want the show to go? AMY B. HARRIS: Yeah, I think this show could go on for as long as it can, because it’s an ensemble piece. Our love story this season was Percy and Sam, but I always like to say, this season was, “Will they, won’t they?” and next season will be, “How will they?” which I think is a very real and complicated thing. Once you stand this far apart from each other in our finale, they haven’t, A. come together fully yet, B. relationships are very complicated, and I think that’s something that isn’t always explored enough on TV, that the happy ending doesn’t mean it ends, it’s just the beginning of something else that can be equally as exciting and challenging and hard and fun. I think we did intentionally build out our other characters and make this a real ensemble piece with the idea that we can be exploring their lives in lots of different ways from season to season, and obviously Carly has written another book in Barry’s Bay that will bring some other characters into the show, which I’m very excited about, and so our goal is really to be exploring these. Hopefully, people will fall in love with all of the characters, and we’ll get to explore their lives and the emotions they’re going through, and the heartbreaks, and callings they find in their work lives, so I’m very excited about that, and the romance is obviously going to be key for Season 2 and different romances for different seasons, but I’m very interested in exploring all of our ensemble.
Harris Discusses Charlie’s Heart Attack Cliffhanger in ‘Every Year After’

“I think his heart is broken, and he’s really struggling…”

Michael Bradway in Every Year AfterImage via Prime Video

Amy, I love how you set up the finale of this season, and I love seeing the little wink to Alice from One Golden Summer. When I saw that picture on the screen, I was like, “Oh my god, here we go!” But why did you choose to end the season on that twist with Charlie having what I assume is a heart attack, because he’s clutching his arm, and why did you decide to have it in that moment when he sees that photo? HARRIS: Well, in One Golden Summer, his heart is an issue, so we wanted to approach that in an impactful way for the finale, and then I think his heart is broken, and he’s really struggling. That photo, although he doesn’t know that Alice might be the person who helps put his pieces together in the next book, and hopefully in seasons to come, but that is a heartbreak to look at that picture of his happier times in his life, and realize he’s as far away from that as he’s ever been. So, for me, that was sort of both emotional and physical what was happening to him.

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Carley Fortune and Harris Break Down That Major Change From the Books With the Tavern

“I was so nervous when I sent that script to her…”

Matt Cornett and Sadie Soverall in Every Year AfterImage via Prime Video

Carley, I’m curious, as the writer coming into this, were there any big changes from the novel that you weren’t fully convinced of, but that Amy and her team proved to you that these changes could work? CARLEY FORTUNE: I was learning about the changes as I was reading the scripts, and I think from the first conversation I had with Amy, I felt that she really understood what I was trying to do with the novel, and she had such empathy for the characters and such love for the story. I could feel it in her scripts that the story was in good hands, so there wasn’t a brief of these are the things that we were going to be changing, I was learning about them as I was reading it, and there were surprises, for example, Percy getting the keys to the tavern, that was a moment when I read it, and I was like, “What?” but it made so much— HARRIS: I was so nervous when I sent that script to her, I was like, “Oh, let’s see how this goes.” FORTUNE: I think I probably wrote back to you, like, “What!” I was so surprised, but also I was so keen to see what happened next, and it just makes so it makes so much sense for the story, and giving Percy a reason to stay, giving tension between Percy and the brothers. I’m very aware that an adaptation is not just throwing the book on the screen, and I was a journalist previously, storytelling is different depending on the form it takes, and so I think there the changes just make so much sense for the medium, and still felt very true to the story.
Fortune Reveals How She Approached the Adaptation of ‘Every Year After’ as the Author

“I didn’t even intend on publishing my book, so back then I really didn’t have a list of what I wanted.”

Elisa Cuthbert as Sue Florek in ‘Every Year After’Image via Prime Video

I’m sure with the success of this novel, you’ve gotten a lot of offers to adapt the story. What was your biggest requirement going in, talking to people who wanted to adapt the story, that you were like, “This is something you cannot miss about the point of these books,” and what convinced you that this was the right move for you? FORTUNE: That’s a really interesting question. I was having conversations about adapting the book this summer that it came out. So the book came out in May of 2022 and it was that summer where I was speaking to people, I didn’t go on book tour for the book. It was still kind of in the pandemic times. I hadn’t had a lot of interaction with audiences, and I frankly didn’t expect it to be made ever, and it was my first novel. I didn’t walk into those conversations saying that these are my requirements for an adaptation. I think the conversations I have now are quite different, but what was great is that I had a lot of time to develop as an author and see also what the book has meant to readers through speaking with them, meeting them, interacting with them on social media. So, by the time we were making the show, by the time Amy came on board, we were able to have conversations about it. So in those early days, I was like, “This is never going to happen, it’s icing on the cake.” I didn’t even intend on publishing my book, so back then I really didn’t have a list of what I wanted.

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Harris and Fortune Discuss the Love Triangle and Continuing Stories at Barry’s Bay

“Jordie clearly had feelings for Delilah for a long time, and those are often hard to extinguish totally.”

Joseph Chiu as Jordie in ‘Every Year After’Image via Prime Video

One thing I really liked about the show is how it’s setting up this complicated love triangle between Jordie, Chantal, and Delilah, that’s being hinted at throughout the season, and then especially towards the end, but given that this show seems to favor long-time crushes and first loves, does Chantal have a fighting chance in this battle? Because I’m rooting for her!

HARRIS: [Laughs] That’s a really good question. I think that the fun of a real triangle, which is what we’re developing there, is that everybody has a fighting chance, right? I think that’s the fun of it, is that, yes, of course, Delilah has had this friendship that’s meant so much to her, and she always seen him as the bestie next door, or at the motel while she’s in her fancy house. But what I love about it is she may have waited too long to realize who was right in front of her, but she may not have. Chantal is a tricky character who can get focused on work, and the pressure of her life and miss out on other things. So I’m really excited by the messiness of it, and you know, Jordie clearly had feelings for Delilah for a long time, and those are often hard to extinguish totally. I think also there’s uncertainty in the fact that we don’t know how that story is going to play out, given that there is no third Barry’s Bay book, which I will have to ask, Carley, are you intending on continuing this universe? Because I know you have other books, but I know people have been asking if there’s going to be more from this specific corner of your world. FORTUNE: Yeah, it feels like readers have no shortage of appetite for books set in Barry’s Bay, and I think, they just love, like, truly love being at the lake with these characters. I’m from Barry’s Bay, and I have a cottage there, and I go every summer, and it means so much to me, and it’s the place where all my books start, so I would definitely never say I wouldn’t return to the lake, let’s just say that.

Release Date

June 10, 2026

Network

Prime Video

Showrunner

Amy Harris, Leila Gerstein

Directors

Gillian Robespierre, Tara Nicole Weyr, Jeffrey W. Byrd

Writers

Julie Rottenberg, Elisa Zuritsky