Off-Campus author Elle Kennedy initially planned for the series to be a trilogy with Garrett, Dean and Logan getting their own books — but there was one character whose fate almost ended up very differently.
“[Tucker] almost didn’t make it. This is a very sensitive issue for a lot of people,” Kennedy said during the Thursday, June 25, episode of the “Off the Shelf” podcast. “Tucker was supposed to be the one that you fell in love with, and then you were gonna grieve for.”
Kennedy knew she was going to make readers fall in “love” with Tucker — who was originally a side character — but then “lose him” throughout the series.
“I always knew that for Dean, because even when I introduced him in The Deal, I was like, ‘This guy’s so perfect. His life is so perfect, someone needs to destroy his life,’” Kennedy said, explaining that Tucker’s “horrible” death was going to “shatter Dean’s entire world.”
How people reacted to Dean actually made Kennedy change her mind.
“I think he became too likable,” she said. “My editor — the fandom should thank her for a lot of things. She steered it in a way, she knew what people would want as well.”
Because Tucker was “such a warm, secure” character, Kennedy’s editor didn’t want to lose him.
“I was like, ‘Well, I have this whole arc for Dean, so you gotta lose someone.’ I said, ‘Take your pick. Who would you like?’” she continued. “The person we lose — I don’t know if we’re talking spoilers — he was on the page enough that I felt like the readers would feel it. I had no idea they would feel it that hard, though.”
The Off-Campus book series took on a second life when it was turned into a series for Prime Video, which debuted earlier this year.
While the first season followed the events of The Deal, telling Garrett’s story, the second season is set to offer insight into Dean’s life, similar to The Score — which is actually the third book in Kennedy’s series.
Kennedy addressed the streamer’s decision to change the order while chatting with Us Weekly exclusively in May.
“The first season is Hannah and Garrett. You get to see the glimpses of the other characters, so fans are going to be like, ‘Who’s next? What’s going to happen?’” she teased at the time. “We’ll have to watch and find out.”
Kennedy continued, “It’s still interconnected. I do think that there is a vision to keep that ensemble alive in the show.”
