Got a secret? Not for long. Pretty Little Liars OGs Janel Parrish and Sasha Pieterse open up in the new issue of Us Weekly about what to expect from the mysterious new drama Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists – and what to keep an eye out for.
“Alison is trying to be a better person and prove to her family that she’s going to make a difference. Then she finds herself with Mona,” Pieterse, 23, says. However, Mona’s in over her head in Beacon Heights, the town where Alison has landed a T.A. job. And when the first murder happens, everyone’s lives are turned upside down.
“Once this happens, you see the masks pull away, and Ali and Mona have to latch onto each other,” Parrish, 30, notes. “They form this amazing friendship.”
While Pieterse and Parrish were excited to lead the new drama, original fans have many questions about Alison’s other half, Emily (Shay Mitchell) — who is not part of the spinoff – and their twins.
“Emily and the babies are definitely heavy on Alison’s mind, but they have a lot to navigate in their relationship and process what’s happened,” Pieterse notes. “Alison gets this amazing opportunity, and her plan is to become a professor and then go back and teach at Hollis so she can be close to her family.”
Creator I. Marlene King also adds that Emison fans are “very important” to her and to everyone at Freeform. “We wanted to make sure that we dealt with that story line in a truthful way, regarding their history and where we last left them,” she says. “It’s a story line that Alison embraces over several episodes.”
Sofia Carson is new to the series, playing Ava, a mysterious student who runs a fashion blog and has a dark past. For Carson, 25, she couldn’t be happier to join the PLL family – and was shocked by the scripts week after week.
“After the pilot, I didn’t know how they’d top it. Second episode topped it, third episode topped that. After reading the fourth, I was shocked,” the Descendants star says. “Marlene said to me, ‘Hold on, you’re in for a ride.’ It truly doesn’t stop.”
While new fans are welcome – you don’t need to know the history of Pretty Little Liars to understand The Perfectionists – there are Easter eggs for longtime fans, sprinkled throughout the show. In fact, PLL fans should “pay attention to the sets,” Parrish notes.
Read our full interviews with the cast the new issue of Us Weekly, on stands now, plus watch the video above.
Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists premieres on Freeform Wednesday, March 20, at 8 p.m. ET.
