‘Cruel Intentions’ Trailer Reveals the New Gen Z Reimagination!! Check It Out!!

Prime Video is going to take you down the only road they’ve ever been down this November. The streamer released the first trailer for Cruel Intentions, the new series based on the cult classic 1997 film. The series will be released on the streamer on November 21, 2024.

The series is set at Washington D.C.’s Manchester College, a prep school that educates the children of the elite. It centers around stepsiblings Caroline Merteuil (Sarah Catherine Hook, First Kill) and Lucien Belmont (Zac Burgess, Boy Swallows Universe), whose social standing is threatened when a brutal hazing incident endangers the school’s system of fraternities and sororities. They’ll have to do anything to stay on top – even if it means seducing the innocent daughter of the US Vice President, Annie Grover (Savannah Lee Smith, Gossip Girl). The cast is rounded out by John Harlan Kim (The Librarians), Khobe Clark (Yellowjackets), Brooke Lena Johnson (The Strangers: Chapter 1), and Sean Patrick Thomas, who starred in the original. In another nod to the original film, a cover of The Verve‘s “Bitter Sweet Symphony” scores the trailer; the song was featured prominently in the 1999 movie.

What Is ‘Cruel Intentions’?

Based on the 1782 French novel Les Liaisons dangereuses (which has itself been adapted into a movie several times, most notably by Stephen Frears in 1988), Cruel Intentions starred Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Philippe as a pair of cruel, wealthy stepsiblings who bet on whether the latter can seduce the headmaster’s virginal daughter (Reese Witherspoon). Directed by Roger Kumble (The Sweetest Thing), the film boasted a cast of young, up-and-coming actors, including Selma Blair, Joshua Jackson, and Tara Reid, and a twisted, surprisingly explicit script. It was a hit at the box office despite middling reviews, grossing $75 million USD on a $10.9 million budget. It was meant to spawn a spinoff prequel TV series, Manchester Prep, but it proved too explicit to air, and was re-edited into a direct-to-video sequel, Cruel Intentions 2; it starred a then-unknown Amy Adams in Gellar‘s role. It proved popular enough that a second DTV sequel followed three years later. Gellar reprised the role in a 2015 pilot, but it was not picked up to series.

Cruel Intentions is co-showrun by Sara Goodman (Preacher) and Phoebe Fisher (I Know What You Did Last Summer), who also write and executive produce. Neal H. Moritz and Pavun Shetty of Original Film also executive produce along with Kumble, who directed the original film. It is produced by Bruce Mellon along with Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi of Iervolino & Bacardi Entertainment. The series is a production of Sony Pictures Television, Amazon MGM Studios, and Original Film.