We Were Liars EPs Talk Book-to-Show Changes, Including Which Sinclair Family Member Didn't Make the Cut

Yahoo

19-06-2025

Summer has officially begun on Prime Video with the premiere of We Were Liars, a series adaptation of E. Lockhart's best-selling tale of romance, revenge and Ralph Lauren.
Just like its 2014 source material, We Were Liars tells the story of Cadence Sinclair (played by Gossip Girl's Emily Alyn Lind), a 17-year-old trust fund princess haunted by the fractured memories of a tragedy no one in her uber-wealthy family wants to discuss. Over the course of one fateful summer on Beechwood, the Sinclairs' private island just off of Martha's Vineyard, the horrifying truth about what happened to Cadence — along with a slew of other family secrets — is finally brought to light.
More from TVLine
Eric Dane: My Countdown Task Force Leader Is 'Unapologetic, Determined' - and Wears the Hell Out of a Suit
Does Jensen Ackles' Countdown Hero Have BDE - Big Dean (Winchester) Energy? 'There Are Familiar Aspects,' Says Supernatural Vet
For First Time, Streaming Viewing Topped Broadcast and Cable Combined in May
But while the basic premise remains fully intact, 'there were a lot of difficult changes made' in bringing the book to life, showrunner Carina Adly Mackenzie tells TVLine. 'Every time we made a change, I was clinging to the original kicking and screaming, sometimes to my own detriment, because I really didn't want to f–k this up.'
Fellow showrunner Julie Plec considers the eight-episode finished product to be a 'very faithful adaptation' of the 2014 novel, except for one key distinction: 'It also involves a lot of elements that we borrowed from the prequel, Family of Liars, that we now get to take into future seasons because we've done all the foundational work with the adult characters.'
Released in 2022, Family of Liars turns back the clock even further via flashbacks to Beechwood in the late 1980s, as the Sinclair sisters — Carrie, Penny and Bess, played on screen by Mamie Gummer, Caitlin Fitzgerald and Candice King — rattle yet another skeleton in their family's walk-in closet of tragedies. A third installment in the book series, We Fell Apart, is due out in November.
Having already adapted several books for TV, most famously The Vampire Diaries, Plec isn't too concerned about fans getting upset about major changes. 'The things that are gone are very much up for debate, and I think the audience will have a good time debating why they're not there,' she says. 'And then there are things in the show that are not in the book, and I think the readers will have a good time debating why they're there too.'
One relatively significant change readers will probably notice is the absence of Mirren's youngest sibling Taft, who was dropped in an effort to service the central characters; on the show, Bess' brood consists solely of Mirren and the twins.
'We would like to apologize to Taft Sinclair Sheffield,' Mackenzie tells TVLine, while Plec isn't quite as remorseful, explaining that 'Taft hit the cutting room floor before there was any footage to cut.'
How much of We Were Liars have you already binged? Have you noticed any significant book-to-screen changes yet? If so, did they bother you? Grade the Prime Video adaptation in our poll below, then drop a comment with more of your thoughts.
Best of TVLine
Yellowjackets' Tawny Cypress Talks Episode 4's Tai/Van Reunion: 'We're All Worried About Taissa'
Vampire Diaries Turns 10: How Real-Life Plot Twists Shaped Everything From the Love Triangle to the Final Death
Vampire Diaries' Biggest Twists Revisited (and Explained)