"Pretty Little Liars" Star Keegan Allen Explained How Toby Cavanaugh's Story Was Almost Different

Seven seasons of romance, mystery, and endless drama surrounding the character of Toby Cavanaugh on Pretty Little Liars almost never happened. 

In an interview segment recently shared by PLL star Keegan Allen, the actor revealed that Toby's storyline was intended to follow the plot of the books, which meant his character was supposed to die.

As pointed out by JustJaredJr., Keegan recently shared a bit of a previous podcast interview with Michael Rosenbaum. During the interview, he explained that the intense social media support for Toby had likely saved his character. 

“Fans were essentially steering the shows, arcs, character progression,” he said. “I was only supposed to be in six episodes. My character dies in the book series, but fans at that time, social media had gotten you know, starting to get a fire under it, and fans were demanding that they didn’t kill Tobias Cavanaugh, which was my character. They’re just like, ‘Do not kill him.'”

Although Marlene King's television iteration was based on the PLL series by Sarah Shepard, the show didn't always follow the exact plot of the book. And in the case of Toby, he was around throughout much of the series. “They married the two in certain ways, and then divorced them in other ways, and one of the divorce factors was my character living and having a very strong relationship with one of the main characters, that was just beautiful,” Keegan said of the show's decision to follow its own story.

The “beautiful relationship” Keegan is referring to was his character's ongoing romance with Spencer (Troian Bellisario). The romance between the pair, affectionally referred to as Spoby by fans, was a major plot point throughout the series. 

Once PLL wrapped in 2017, King shared that the pair were “end game," and while the creator had shared her vision for the couple's fictional future, Keegan had turned to social media, asking fans to write their own ending for the couple. I

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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue