Romantic comedies got a lot of much-deserved love and attention in 2018; one of the more interesting contributions to that glorious rom-com resurgence was the Greg Berlanti-directed Love, Simon, an adaptation of Becky Albertalli’s queer young adult book Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda.
Love, Simon was a critical and box office success, making $66 million on a $10-$17 million budget as the first major Hollywood film to centre around a gay teen romance. While there has been no official movement on adapting Albertalli’s sequel—Leah on the Offbeat, which focuses on Simon’s best (played by 13 Reasons Why‘s Katherine Langford in the film)—Variety just announced that a Love, Simon TV series is in development at Disney+, Disney’s upcoming streaming service.
The Love, Simon story is about Simon, a closeted teen who falls in love with a classmate he meets online. As Simon begins to search for the identity of the object of his affection, he struggles to keep his sexual orientation secret from his friends, family, and school community.
Berlanti, who is an executive producer on about a million TV shows currently in production (including the Arrow-verse), stepped behind the camera as director for the 2018 film, but doesn’t seem to have any involvement in the Disney+ production, as he has a deal with Warner Bros. According to the Variety article, This Is Us showrunners Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger are “eyeing” the project.
In addition to Langford, the film starred Nick Robinson in the title role, as well as Josh Duhamel, Jennifer Garner, Alexandra Shipp, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Keiynan Lonsdale, Miles Heizer as Cal Price, Logan Miller, Tony Hale, and Talitha Bateman. None of the film’s cast is not expected to reprise their roles for the TV show.
