After Movie Family Tree: Tessa & Hardin’s Relatives Explained
The After franchise has become really popular, but with all of the characters constantly changing, it can be confusing to remember who’s who.
The After franchise is a very successful series of movies that focuses on a young couple, but along with them come their very messy families. The film series is based on a series by author Anna Todd written on Wattpad before being adapted for publication and then on the screen. The books became a worldwide sensation and the movies followed suit, pulling viewers from one version of the story to the other. The movie franchise has become so successful, in fact, that the movies are starting to expand beyond the source material to continue Tessa and Hardin’s story.
The After movies follow Tessa (Josephine Langford) and Hardin (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) as they fall in and out of each other’s lives while trying to ignore the fact that they’re still in love with each other. The two characters bring with them their extensive family and their drama, which directly affects their lives. This series has seen a huge turnover in actors. Landon and other main characters were recast, sometimes switching the person playing a character once or twice in the movies before one sticks around for several. After has a large cast of characters, and with all the switching, it can be difficult to identify family members.
Tessa Young is the lead character in the After franchise. It follows her journey through college as she gets her dream job and meets the man of her dreams, who also happens to bring the most drama into her life. She is the daughter of Carol and Richard Young, who are her parents. They divorced when she was younger. Her mother is the one who raised her all the way through childhood but is a little controlling. Her father disappeared for most of her life, but returned to her in the franchise’s third film, After We Fell.
Carol Young
Carol Young is Tessa’s mother and Richard’s ex-wife. She is a large character in the first movie where she’s played by Selma Blair, often showing up to disapprove of Tessa’s actions. She also does not like Hardin throughout any of the films. This is made clear when Tessa dumps her first boyfriend for him and throughout the film. Hardin even comes to check up on Tessa after her father’s death, and Carol tells him that he hurts her just by leaving and constantly. She is still alive and still in Tessa’s life at the time After Everything ended the franchise.
Richard Young
Richard Young is Tessa’s estranged father and Carol’s ex-husband. He left for several reasons, including his struggles with addiction. He is brought up in the first two films, as Tessa wants to learn more information about him. In the second movie, the man actually appears and asks Hardin for help, but he’s not aware of his true identity. The third film is when he is a prominent character and builds a relationship with Tessa. In the fourth film After Ever Happy, Tessa discovers her dad died after returning from a family wedding. This devastates her, and she has to go to his funeral.
The Scott Family
Hardin Scott
Hardin Scott is the male lead in the After series. Hardin is a pretty toxic character who can’t seem to get a hold of what he wants. His mother is Trish, who lives back in England, while Hardin moved to the United States for college with the person he thought was his father, Ken Scott. Ken was an abusive and absent father, which left Hardin with a lot of resentment. Eventually, he finds out that his biological father is actually a good, family friend named Christian Vance. Tessa is his on-and-off girlfriend whom he loves dearly, despite not being able to make healthy decisions.
Christian Vance
Christian Vance is a book publisher in the After franchise. He was an assumed family friend of the Scott family, and often helped Hardin when he was in times of struggle. Hardin even called on him to give Tessa a job at his publishing company when she talked about wanting to work in books. Christian is revealed to be Hardin’s father in After We Fell when Hardin catches his mother and Christian hooking up on the eve of Trish’s wedding. This happens while he is married to another woman with whom he has another child, Smith.
Trish Daniels
After Movie Trish Daniels
Trish Daniels is Hardin’s mother, Ken’s ex-wife, and Christian Vance’s former lover. She was also in a close-knit friendship with Ken and Christian. She appears occasionally in the franchise. This includes when she came to visit her son and Tessa early in the franchise, and welcoming her son home when he comes back to England. While she got married in After We Fell to another man, she did hook up with Christian Vance the night before her wedding, claiming there was a lot of history. Hardin caught them and was very upset that the truth behind his parentage was kept from him.
Ken Scott is Hardin’s legal father, Karen Scott’s current husband, and Landon Gibson’s stepfather. After leaving Hardin and Trish, Ken went to America and ended up working at a university as their dean. He remarried to a woman named Karen, who already had a son named Landon. Ken’s relationship with Hardin was not great, as he had troubles with alcoholism in Hardin’s youth. It was looking better before Hardin found out that he wasn’t actually his biological father. Ken Scott hosted the group of friends at his cabin during After We Fell but didn’t play a vital role.
Landon Gibson
Landon is not biologically related to Hardin, but they are brothers and best friends. Landon was one of many After characters recast in the middle of the franchise. They’ve known each other since they were both young boys and Landon is someone that Hardin thinks of as a friend. Landon also became a great friend to Tessa and was there for her after her father died. Besides these family roles, he is also responsible for helping Tessa and Hardin stay together, as he provides advice to both on how to mend their relationship.
Karen Scott
After Movie Karen Scott
Karen does not play a major role in the series, but she appears a couple of times. Karen is Landon’s mother, Ken’s current wife, and Hardin’s stepmother. Hardin isn’t always the nicest to Karen, but he’s gotten better over the films. While her role was mostly just being a supportive wife, the third film showed her really trying to make Tessa feel at home while the group was staying at the family cabin together. She was also recast after a few movies in the After franchise.
