‘We Were Liars’ Author on How Season 1’s Twisted Finale Sets Up Potential Season 2 and Prequel Book’s Adaptation

Spoilers ahead for Prime Video’s We Were Liars, and E. Lockhart’s prequel book Family of Liars.

Prime Video’s heart-wrenching adaptation of E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars released on Wednesday, and it seemingly set up a second season.

Although Season 2 has not been announced, that didn’t stop Lockhart, who wrote the season finale, from alluding to what will be next for the Sinclair family.

In We Were Liars, Emily Alyn Lind’s Cadence desperately tries to piece together what happened one summer on her family’s island that caused an accident in which she got amnesia, blocking out most of the summer and a terrible tragedy that occurred. Episode 8, “When Lies Give You Lemons,” eventually reveals that Cadence’s plan with the other “Liars” – her cousins Mirren (Esther McGregor) and Johnny (Joseph Zada), and Gat (Shubham Maheshwari) – to burn down the main family home Clairmont went terribly wrong, leading to Mirren, Johnny, and Gat’s deaths as they perished in the house.

The final seconds of the finale saw Johnny, revealed to be a ghost with Mirren and Gat, talking to his mother Carrie (Mamie Gummer), and he wasn’t ready to leave her. While that moment was not included in the first book, it was actually the beginning of prequel, Family of Liars, which takes place in the ‘80s and is narrated by Carrie telling a story of a summer from when she was a teenager.

“That final scene with Carrie and Johnny is very close to the opening of my second book in the We Were Liars universe, which is called Family of Liars,” Lockhart confirmed to TVLine. “Really, it’s a tip forward into Season 2 – should we get a Season 2 – but it’s also a tip forward to the book that comes after We Were Liars. We all hope for Season 2, and I know the showrunners have all kinds of plans.”

Showrunner and co-creator Julie Plec revealed that the first season “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.” Some of those elements include the mention of Rosemary, the late sister of Carrie, Penny (Caitlin Fitzgerald), and Bess (Candice King), as well as something happening during Bess’ Summer 16 that might have led to Carrie and Bess getting punished by way of their kids dying.

“I wrote the finale, and that was a great chance to basically write a different version of the story that I had already written,” Lockhart said. “I wrote a television version, and even though the same basic thing happens, it’s paced differently. The action is built out, the drama is heightened, the reveals are done in a different way — and there are some additional reveals that aren’t in the book.”

It may not have been confirmed yet if a second season is happening, it’s clear that there is still a lot more story to be told about the Sinclairs and a lot more lies that the family is keeping. For now, We Were Liars is streaming on Prime Video. And We Were Liars and Family of Liars by E. Lockhart are available to purchase.