‘Cruel Intentions’ exclusive first-look photos go inside Greek life

If you listen closely, you can hear the first chords of “Bitter Sweet Symphony” playing in the distance … because Cruel Intentions is headed back to the screen.

The new series, from co-showrunners Sara Goodman and Phoebe Fisher, is an update to the story of the 1999 film that starred Reese Witherspoon, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Selma Blair (and was based on the classic novel Dangerous Liaisons). When updating the deliciously twisted story of two step-siblings willing to do just about anything to maintain their social status, Goodman and Fisher, who worked together on the I Know What You Did Last Summer TV series, first had to find the perfect setting.

“We talked a lot about what the peek behind the curtain of a rarefied world that we hadn’t seen before could be, where it felt like it had its own social hierarchy,” Fisher says.

They landed on the socially loaded world of fraternities and sororities. “Part of the conversation was: How do we stay true to everything we loved about the movie but put it in a world that we haven’t necessarily seen before?” Goodman says. But really, what made college Greek life the perfect setting is the fact that, as Goodman puts it, it’s where “Cruelty is still embraced.”

But that’s not to say the show is set in present day. “It is modern, but we don’t do social media,” Goodman clarifies. “It feels like our characters read newspapers. We really wanted to put it in this kind of timeless place.”

At the center of the story are step-siblings Caroline Merteuil (Sarah Catherine Hook) and Lucien Belmont (Zac Burgess), two key figures in Greek life, who find themselves scrambling after a hazing incident puts their world under a microscope. They’ll do anything to set things right, including seducing Annie Grover (Savannah Lee Smith), the daughter of the vice president of the United States.

Rounding out the cast are Sara Silva, Khobe Clarke, John Harlan Kim, and Brooke Lena Johnson.

And did we mention Sean Patrick Thomas, who will once again get to play in this world? But his presence won’t be the only wink to the original film. “There’s the car,” Goodman says. “The cross necklace, ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony.'” Fisher is quick to add, “Step siblings who do it all.”

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Ultimately, the co-showrunners are trying to strike the perfect balance of honoring the original film (and text) and creating their own story. “Wherever we felt like it served the story or the style of the show to tie it all together, we did,” Goodman says. “We love the movie.”

And perhaps most importantly, she adds, “We’re not trying to reinvent cruelty.”

See more exclusive first-look photos of the new show below:

Cruel Intentions will premiere in November on Prime Video.