The creator and showrunner of the 2010’s Pretty Little Liars is returning with a new crime thriller series. The series is currently in development at Hulu and is based on a young adult thriller novel by Elle Kennedy.
According to Deadline, Pretty Little Liars creator Marlene King will return to develop an adaptation of Thornbird by the Off Campus author Kennedy. King is set to write and executive produce the series. She will also executive produce the series alongside Kennedy and Lauren Wagner.
Apart from Pretty Little Liars, her previous television and film credits include Now & Then, Just My Luck, If These Walls Could Talk, Ravenswood, The Heiresses, Famous in Love, Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, and Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin.
What we know about Hulu’s Thornbird and the novel behind the series
Thornbird follows 17-year-old Ryan Shipley as she races to uncover the crimes of her family’s past, while the world searches for answers about her.
The official synopsis reads, “Ten years after her father—the infamous serial killer Gabriel Thorn—was caught, Ryan Shipley is back in Starling, Tennessee, trying to lay low. No one can know who she really is. No one can know the truth about her past. But as fresh eyes dig deeper into the case, old secrets refuse to stay buried. Cryptic texts, eerie coincidences, and a chilling note leave everyone wondering—does Ryan know more than she’s letting on? As the truth unravels, one thing becomes clear: in a town full of secrets, Ryan might be the biggest mystery of them all.”
Kennedy wrote the book under her pseudonym, E. Kennedy, and published it on June 30, 2026. It became an instant New York Times bestseller.
King will develop the Hulu project through 20th Television. Since the series is still in development, no cast has been announced yet.