Remote Controlled: ‘Pretty Little Liars’ EP Marlene King Teases Final Episodes and Emison’s Future
Welcome to Remote Controlled, Variety’s podcast series featuring the best and brightest in television, both in front of and behind the camera.
This week’s episode features Variety TV reporter Elizabeth Wagmeister in conversation with Marlene King, creator of “Pretty Little Liars” and new series “Famous in Love.”
“Pretty Little Liars,” Freeform’s top-rated show, debuted the first of its final ten episodes this week. King says the decision to end the show wasn’t easy, but felt right. “It’s extremely bittersweet,” she says. “I think we all felt like it was time to end the show, that it was the right thing to do and it’s the right time to say goodbye to Rosewood and all of our characters that we love so much. It was super, super sad, but it felt right, too.”
However, as one show signs off the air, another signs on: King’s newest addition to Freeform’s line-up, “Famous in Love,” a coming-of-age Hollywood story, starring former Disney actress Bella Thorne as an unknown who gets the role of a lifetime after a chance audition that catapults her into super-stardom. King admits that working on “Pretty Little Liars” prepped her to take on “Famous in Love,” which like “PLL,” is based on a book.
“Bella was the one who brought the book to me and I read it,” King reveals. “Coming off of seven years of ‘Pretty Little Liars’ and watching these girls go from unknowns to starlets to stars, I felt like I just know so much about that and have been so much part of that world, it would be easy for me to figure out how to crack this nut of a TV show.”
As for what to expect during the last leg of “Liars,” King reveals there will be a wedding. “It is a season of homecomings, it’s a season of reunions, a lot of full-circle moments. I’m a hopeful romantic, so that gives you a little bit of a hint.” Every mystery from the series will be solved, including who killed Charlotte, who killed Mrs. DiLaurentis and, of course, Uber A’s identity. King says the big reveal comes at the beginning of the last episode.
“I love the Emison fans,” King says of Emily (Shay Mitchell) and Alison (Sasha Pieterse), who’ve been dubbed on social media as “Emison.” “I’m very passionate about them, and they’re very passionate about this couple and their journey together, and they’ve been very vocal on social media about wanting to hear Alison discuss her sexuality because it hasn’t really been discussed. She hasn’t really verbalized it — is she straight? Is she gay? Is she bi? What is she? In these last ten episodes, that’s a big part of her story and it’s a big part of her story with Emily.”
Asked about a potential revival of the series, “It’s the end — the end for now,” she says. “But I feel like this world is so rich, and our fans are so loyal and so passionate and we’re so grateful to them. The fans have so much power in this story, and I think they’ll find a way to say, ‘This is how you should do it.'”
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New episodes of Remote Controlled are available every Friday.
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