After Is The Steady Fanfiction Drama Franchise That Might Be Too Much For Netflix
Based on the fanfiction novels by Anna Todd, the “After” movie franchise is currently steaming up viewers’ TV screens. Fans of soapy teen romance have an entire series of four films to dig in on. The series began as a fanfiction story Todd wrote on Wattpad in 2014 about the boy band One Direction. The main love interest in the book and film is named Hardin Scott and is modeled after the former One Direction singer he shares initials with, Harry Styles. The book was adapted into a film in 2019 and featured Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin as lead characters Tessa and Hardin. While the first film in the series is not available to stream on Netflix at the time of this writing, the following three films in the series are. “After” is currently streaming on Hulu.
“After” follows the torrid love affair between American steadfast good-girl Tessa and tattooed British bad-boy Hardin. Their relationship is volatile and their parents don’t want to see it happen, making their relationship all the more intense. These are all the pieces for a steamy forbidden romance that fans should want to sink their teeth into. Besides the production company Voltage Pictures handing over the rights to release the film from Universal subsidiary Aviron Pictures to Open Road Films for the sequel, “After We Collided,” the series does something very unique that other similar romance series don’t usually do. The first film is rated PG-13, and while there’s plenty of steamy forbidden romance action in the film, the sequel takes things to another level as it is rated R. The sexy scenes in the series get a bit more intense in “After We Collided,” making the film one of the steamiest movies on Netflix.
The R-rated sequel set the formula for the rest of the series
Fans of sordid romances turned up in droves when “After We Collided” hit Netflix. While the film was a modest success when it was released in theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown in 2020, critics mostly hated the movie, citing the film’s glorification of a severely toxic relationship. That didn’t stop curious viewers from watching the film when it dropped, defying the odds and making the critically lambasted film dominate the most-watched charts on the streamer. Due to all that fan interest and the success of the previous two films, Voltage Pictures, with the help of Netflix, put into production two more sequels in the series.
“After We Fell” followed in 2021 and the series concluded (for now) with the finale that features quite the awkwardly jumbled title, “After Ever Happy” in 2022. Both movies cracked the top watched charts on Netflix again when they debuted, and for the most part, the movies followed the exact same story pattern as “After We Collided.” Tessa and Hardin — or Hessa if you will — have a happy relationship after changing everything about themselves to be with each other. Next, they fight a lot, break up, go back to being functional humans, cross paths somehow, then have sex, rinse, and repeat … for two more movies.
One of the aforementioned sex scenes in “After We Fell” which takes place in a hot tub actually required a doctor to be on set for the filming. The repetitive and clearly quite toxic drama of the film series may sound infuriating for some film fans, but it’s oddly watchable and addictive.
There are three more After movies in development
The “After” films have proven to be successful, addictive, and watchable enough that there are three more movies in the pipeline for the steamy series. “After Everything,” which Hero Fiennes Tiffin confirmed has already been shot in secret, is currently in post-production and is said to be the conclusion of the Tessa and Hardin storyline. According to Teen Vogue, the next film in development following that is called “Before,” which is said to follow a young Hardin and document his tumultuous and volatile home life before he grew up and met Tessa. The final film in the series is currently untitled and will follow Tessa and Hardin’s children as they atone for the sins of their parents.
Fans wanting to add a little spice to their viewing habits can catch “After” on Hulu and follow it up with “After We Collided,” “After We Fell,” and “After Ever Happy” on Netflix before the sequels drop in the years ahead.
