Troian Bellisario on ‘Pretty Little Liars’ Reboot (Exclusive)

Pretty Little Liars fans received the best news of a lifetime when a reboot was announced. The teen drama series, which is loosely based on the novel series of the same name title by Sara Shepard, aired on Freeform for seven seasons. HBO Max gave a series order to a revitalized version titled Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, which is set to focus on a new cast of characters in a different setting but with similar themes. Troian Bellisario starred as Spencer Hastings, a perfectionist, and people-pleaser to her wealthy and high-achieving family and her friends. She is lauded as the smart one of the group and has quite a love story. However, Bellisario will not be part of the reboot, at least not as of yet,

Regarding what the reboot entails for her character she admits she’s unaware. “I truly have no idea. I mean, I don’t know anything about the reboot other than it’s happening,” she told us in a recent chat while promoting her latest comedy film DOULA. “And I don’t even know if Spencer Hastings is alive in this version of the universe. I genuinely have no idea, so I don’t know how that would work.”

The one thing Bellisario is certain of is the impact of the show. She says the secret to its success is the emphasis on female friendship in a world that thrives off it but rarely showcases it in a positive way. 

“I think what people love about it is the friendship between the women. It was so cool. When I look back, making Pretty Little Liars was just such a wild experience because it was like being with your friends, and especially being young women, being in a situation where you’re not – It’s funny, there was a lot of, “Am I going to be killed or stuff?” on this set, but there was always a, like, “I’m supporting my friend.” It was about female friendship,” she gushed. 

She continued: “And it was about these five women who were different in so many ways, but were also just in love with each other and lifted each other up. And I think that that’s really rare. I think that is what meant everything to the fans was just this friendship; that it wasn’t about women tearing each other down. It was about friends lifting each other up and loving each other.”