When Anna Cathcart booked the first “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” movie in July 2017 as a teenager, she never imagine she’d still be playing the character seven years later at 21 years old.
But as evident by the return of “XO, Kitty” Season 2 this week, that’s exactly what happened for both the actress and the show’s titular lead, Kitty Song Covey. Ahead of the Netflix spinoff series’ season premiere on Thursday, Cathcart and showrunner Jessica O’Toole opened up to TheWrap about returning to South Korea and finally getting to film their teen romantic dramedy without COVID protocols as they did in Season 1.
“It’s just surreal to me that I get to continue this character’s story in a way that I never would have expected when I first started working on the movies. I mean, the movie originally was just one, it wasn’t even three movies,” Cathcart told TheWrap. “So to be on this journey now, almost eight years later in the same character but in a brand new way is something I don’t think I’ll ever be able to comprehend.”
“My feeling about Season 2 is that I wanted to kick everything up a notch, and I think the actors rose to that occasion,” O’Toole added. “We happen to do some big stuff, it’s a big season and, largely because we didn’t have to worry about COVID, we could do a lot more and see more of Korea, see more of Seoul, and just expand Kitty’s world, too.”
“XO, Kitty” Season 1 premiered in May 2023 with a young cast that saw Kitty continue her match-making hijinks amongst her new Korean Independent School of Seoul (KISS) classmates. And while Cathcart was already an established actor at that point, that wasn’t the case for all of her co-stars.
“Everyone matured. Some of our actors were pretty brand new to the business [in Season 1]. Everyone just felt a little more grown up,” O’Toole explained. “And it’s funny, because the first season we were shooting during COVID, so it was a very different experience — you’re wearing masks, you’re all corralled, you’re not together outside of work. So this just felt like getting to know them a lot better, feeling really proud and seeing how far a lot of them had come.”
“Truly, we got a chance to really explore Seoul the way it should be explored — getting to go do things without the fear that we weren’t allowed to or trying to stay as safe as possible during Season 1,” Cathcart agreed. “This season, just having that whole hurdle lifted from the entire experience made a big difference. We explored nightlife a lot more, which was so fun. Seoul was such an amazing, bustling city that truly never sleeps. It was blowing our minds that things close at like 8 a.m. And then during shooting as well, having that stress removed, it showed us how much of an impact it really had on Season 1 and was just a much smoother experience in so many ways.”
“This time getting to come back for a second season, it was almost like we get a chance to really grab the wheel this time and have the sense of confidence that we know how to do this,” she continued. “And we’re two years older. We’ve had so many life experiences since the first season and that was an amazing opportunity to kind of rebrand what this can look like for me in my own, personal way.”
While the first three movies in the film franchise based on Jenny Han’s hit book series — 2018’s “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” 2020’s “To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You” and 2021’s “To All the Boys: Always and Forever” — were grounded by Lana Condor and Noah Centineo, Cathcart’s younger sister Kitty proved to be a worthy lead to both fans and Netflix.
“Sometimes you could see how there’s those supporting characters who get a spinoff and it’s like, you realize they’re better in small doses or whatever. But I think with Kitty that’s just not the case at all and, in large part, that’s because of [Anna] as an actress,” O’Toole gushed.
So what exactly is that special sauce that makes the spinoff such a fun watch for viewers, regardless of their age demographic?
“Something that’s special about ‘XO, Kitty’ is a lot of people can find something they relate to in it, no matter what stage of life you’re in. I think the overall theme of our show is pretty much that growing up is messy, love is messy, figuring out who you are can be messy, and that’s what makes it all beautiful,” Cathcart said. “No matter who you are, you can relate to that in some sense for sure, because I don’t think anyone has escaped the messiness of growing up and the messiness of just being human and feeling big feelings.”
“I think that’s something that’s really cool to see on screen, especially in a show that has so much diversity and has a lot of different forms of representation in ethnicity, but also in sexuality,” she continued. “All of the diversity that shows up attracts a lot of new viewers as well who maybe haven’t seen the movies, but just love these characters and love their stories for who they are. Season 2 explores that even deeper, so I’m very excited to gain, hopefully, an even wider audience and bring back all of those fans.”
“The show stands on its own for sure, but having that world to draw on only adds flavor, excitement, opportunities to get to see some of those people. There’s a sense of world-building that just comes along with having [the trilogy]. Kitty was, for me, when I watched the movies, my favorite character; for a lot of people, so it enriches the experience to have watched,” O’Toole added. “But at the same time, even if you didn’t know a single thing about the movies, you’d be getting a satisfying experience. Because we’ve got Kitty, but then we’ve got all these other characters that come from totally different worlds, who now feel lived in and feel like they’ve got their own depth and everything.”
“XO, Kitty” is just one of Netflix’s flagship series that is both set in and filmed around South Korea — alongside fellow hits “Squid Game,” “All of Us Are Dead,” “Physical: 100” and “The Devil’s Plan,” to name a few. In fact, “Kitty” even shared some soundstages with “Squid Game” Season 2, leading to the young cast getting invited to the premiere red carpet.
“It’s so cool just to see that so much Asian media is getting so much attention and is becoming so popular,” Cathcart shared. “Getting to go to the premiere with the cast as well was so fun because we’ve had pretty limited experiences or shared opportunities like that, especially in the U.S. because so many of our castmates are from all over and are so international. So that was really, really special. It was so cool to show up as a group and to celebrate another piece of amazing media.”
The series also stars Minyeong Choi, Gia Kim, Sang Heon Lee, Anthony Keyvan, Regan Aliyah, Audrey Huynh, Peter Thurnwald, Sasha Bhasin, Joshua Lee, Jocelyn Shelfo, Michael K. Lee and Philippe Lee … and you might see a familiar face or two from the original film trilogy pop up this time around.
“XO, Kitty” returns for Season 2 this Thursday on Netflix. Season 1 and all three “To All the Boys” movies are currently streaming.
