‘This Summer Will Be Different’ Netflix adaptation starts production, adds recurring cast
Sophie Nélisse, Roby Attal and Francesca Reale during the start of production on ‘This Summer Will Be Different.’ (Amanda Matlovich/Netflix)
Cameras have started rolling on This Summer Will Be Different.
Netflix announced that production has started on the upcoming TV adaptation of author Carley Fortune’s bestselling romance novel.
Sophie Nélisse will star as Lucy in the series. Francesca Reale and Roby Attal are also part of the show’s main cast. They play the roles of Bridget and Felix, who also goes by the nickname Wolf.
Additionally, Netflix has announced the actors joining the show’s recurring cast. Jordan Rodrigues will play Miles Lam, Jude Wilson is set to play Zach, Natalie Brown has been cast as Christine, James Tupper will play Ken, Tom Barnett is set for Peter and Celia Owen has been cast as Joy.
This Summer Will Be Different will be “a simmering, sun-soaked romance set across multiple summers on Prince Edward Island about Lucy, a young woman navigating her 20s and her first real love with her best friend’s brother, the one person she was never supposed to fall for,” according to the show’s logline.
Dane Clark and Linsey Stewart serve as the adaptation’s creators and showrunners. They also both executive produce the show alongside Fortune.
This Summer Will Be Different is filming on location in Prince Edward Island and in Toronto. It will span 10 episodes.
“I fell in love with Prince Edward Island first in the pages of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables and again when I visited with my best friend in my early 20s,” Fortune told Netflix. “That vacation, the beauty of the island, the warmth of its people, and the friendships that sustain us are the foundation of This Summer Will Be Different. I’m thrilled to bring this sweeping love story to the screen with Netflix and to transport audiences to the glittering shores and windswept beaches of PEI.”
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Emily Baldoni and Justin Baldoni attend the ‘It Ends With Us’ New York Premiere at AMC Lincoln Square Theater on August 6, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images)
Justin Baldoni and his wife, Emily Baldoni, are speaking publicly for the first time in nearly two years as the legal dispute between Baldoni and his former It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively continues.
In a joint video shared to Instagram on Wednesday, the couple said they had chosen not to speak publicly earlier while the legal process played out.
In April, a federal judge dismissed much of Lively’s case against Baldoni, including her claims that she was subjected to sexual harassment, but allowed her to pursue a retaliation claim against Baldoni’s public relations teams.
Baldoni, via his Wayfarer Studios production company, and Lively later agreed to settle but remain tied up in a court fight over legal fees.
“So we have not spoken publicly for the better part of the last two years and it’s not because we haven’t had anything to say because lord knows we have,” Justin Baldoni said in the video. “But it just felt like every time we went to make a video like this, we wanted to speak, something was telling us not to — it just didn’t feel like the right time.”
Emily Baldoni added, “And this feels like the moment.”
The couple said there is “so much to say” but that they were not going to say it all now.
“What does feel important is that we can genuinely say that we are sitting here today feeling immense gratitude for so many things and so many people and so many things that have happened to us,” Emily Baldoni said.
“Gratitude has saved us,” Justin Baldoni added.
Emily Baldoni said that gratitude “doesn’t negate the injustice and the pain that we have also felt in the last few years.”
“We’ve had to wrestle with so many things and try to understand so many things, like how could something like this even happen? Let alone disguise[d] as a fight for women,” she said.
Justin Baldoni said the couple chose not to contribute to “the noise” surrounding the case.
“We just wanted to let the justice system run its course,” he said.
Emily Baldoni added, “The truth and the facts have spoken for themselves. And here we are.”
Justin Baldoni said the family is continuing to recover from the experience.
“We are healing,” he said. “And if you’ve ever been through something traumatic, you know that healing isn’t linear. It looks different every day.”
He said the experience has helped the couple focus on “the kids, it’s our family, it is our friends, it’s our community … it’s our faith.”
Justin Baldoni also thanked supporters who stood by the family.
“There were so many of you who, when we didn’t have a voice, were our voice,” he said. “Thank you does not feel like enough.”
Emily Baldoni said the couple plans to continue focusing on their family.
“There is so much more to say, and that time will come. But for now, we are going to focus on continuing the healing and hanging out with our kiddos and enjoying life.”
The video comes days after attorneys for Lively said in a court filing that Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer Studios, owes the actress $7,495,526.87 in attorneys’ fees connected to the studio’s defamation lawsuit against her, which was dismissed in June 2025. According to the filing, Lively is also seeking $539,514.01 in costs and expenses related to the dismissed case.
The filing came after U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman denied Lively’s request for punitive damages but allowed her to seek attorneys’ fees under California Civil Code Section 47.1, a law designed to protect people who report sexual assault, harassment or discrimination from retaliatory defamation lawsuits.
The legal dispute between the former It Ends With Us co-stars began in December 2024, when Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of the film, which he also directed.
Lively also accused Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios of attempting to orchestrate a smear campaign against her, allegations Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios have denied.
The two later filed competing lawsuits against one another. Baldoni accused Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, the couple’s publicist, Leslie Sloane, and others of extortion and defamation, among other claims. The lawsuits were consolidated into one case in January 2025.
Baldoni’s lawsuit was dismissed by Liman in June 2025. Earlier this year, the judge also dismissed most of Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni while allowing her retaliation claims against Baldoni’s public relations team to proceed.
In May, Baldoni, through Wayfarer Studios, and Lively agreed to settle their ongoing dispute. Liman ruled that Wayfarer Studios must pay Lively’s attorneys’ fees but denied Lively’s request for punitive damages. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
ABC News has reached out to representatives for Lively for comment on the Baldonis’ Instagram video.
Sadie Sink attends the press night after party for ‘Romeo & Juliet’ at Quaglino’s on March 31, 2026, in London, England. (Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Sadie Sink has found her next TV project.
The Stranger Things actress is set to star in and executive produce The Marriage Plot for FX. It will be a limited series based on Jeffrey Eugenides’ 2011 novel of the same name.
The Marriage Plot tells the story of three recent college graduates who are “caught in an all-consuming love triangle as they reconcile their youthful romantic aspirations with looming adulthood and make life-altering choices about love and identity,” according to an official description from FX.
Succession‘s Will Arbery is writing the project while Widow’s Bay director Hiro Murai is helming. The series will stream on Hulu.
“The Marriage Plot is a perfect fit for FX: ambitious, character-driven storytelling that offers another great opportunity to partner with exceptional artists,” Gina Balian, the president of FX Entertainment, said. “We look forward to building on our partnerships with Will and Hiro, both of whom are extraordinary talents who we are proud to work with again.”
This marks Arbery’s second FX series order in less than a year. His original show Seven Sisters was picked up by the network in December.
Next up for Sink is an appearance in this summer’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day. She is also set to executive produce the film adaptation of the play John Proctor Is The Villain for Universal Pictures.
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