The Kissing Booth 2 is very nearly upon us and if the huge success of the 2018 original is anything to go by – after all, it became one of Netflix’s most rewatched movies – then the streaming service is set to have another hit on its hands.
What’s more actress Joey King, who plays central character Elle, has told The Hollywood Reporter that she actually thinks the sequel is “better than the first movie”, promising that the cast and crew have “hit it out of the park”.
“We wanted to give fans something to remember, something that is even bigger and better than the movie that they fell in love with initially, something that exceeded all expectations,” she said.
The sequel will see Elle (King) and Noah (Jacob Elordi) struggling to maintain their new romance. After enjoying the perfect summer together they are now in a long-distance relationship, with Noah adjusting to life as a college student at Harvard while Elle completes her senior year at her Los Angeles high school.
Their commitment will be tested further when Elle develops a bond with the artistic new guy at school Marco (Taylor Zakhar Perez) and Noah makes friends with a confident fellow Harvard student named Chloe (Maisie Richardson-Sellers).
Perez revealed that Elle’s new friendship with Marco will make her question her feelings, saying that he offers “different things” to her.
“He’s artistic. He dances. He plays the guitar. He sings. It’s a kind of whole different kind of guy than she’s used to, ” he said.
“And so when they finally have this little meet-cute and they start this relationship, this friendship, I think she starts questioning herself. Does she love Noah? Does she like Marco? What’s her future going to be?”
Richardson-Sellers teased that Elle will also be “jealous” of Noah’s connection with Chloe, whose dynamic personality worries Elle.
“(Chloe) instantly becomes best friends with Noah and she is very elevated. She’s this very intelligent, very dynamic and sort of confident, can control any room that she’s in person who Elle gets a little bit jealous of when she sort of sees that this close friendship has formed so far away from her,” the actress said.
“Long distance is so hard and I think that’s what this film does really well is it sort of exposes the stresses that long distance can put through both of our characters. And it also exposes the assumptions that can be made as a result, and what happens when there’s not great communication among partners. So, it was super fun to come in and stir the pot up a bit.”
The sequel also sees Joel Courtney return as Elle’s best friend and Noah’s brother Lee, and Molly Ringwald back as Noah and Lee’s mum.
The Kissing Booth 2 arrives on Netflix on July 24.
