The Kissing Booth franchise might be one of the best examples of what you call the guilty pleasure genre of movies. None of the three films that was released from 2018 to 2021 were able to impress the critics or for that matter, many of its viewers. It would be incomprehensible for these movie-goers as to how the idea of The Kissing Booth 4 gets thrown around so much.
The movies follow friends Elle and Lee, played by Joey King and Joel Courtney, and how their relationship gets affected when Elle falls for Lee’s brother Noah, played by Jacob Elordi.
In the third movie, we saw that Elle decided to chose her own path, independent of Lee and Noah. Fans even got a six-years-later scene, where the fate of Elle and Noah’s relationship was left for the viewers’ imagination.
Is Netflix planning The Kissing Booth 4?
As of now, Netflix has no plans to make a fourth film in The Kissing Booth film franchise. Even Beth Reekles has expressed no desire for a fourth book in the series. Reekles has moved from the YA genre to more mature novels with her last two works. Reekles’ words were more definitive when she wrote about The Kissing Both 3 a couple of weeks after the film’s release.
She shared that she sobbed her hearts out after finishing the work on her book and watching the film on the streamer. Reekles shared that she was grieving since it was the end of an era. She shared on her website:
When I finished the edits on The Kissing Booth 3: One Last Time, and when I watched the third movie for the first time a couple of weeks ago, I sobbed my heart out. I felt like I was grieving – and I was. This is all ten years in the making, ten years of Elle and Lee and Noah, and now… Now, it’s all come to an end… It’s the end of an era.
Talking to The Nerds of Colour, the movie lead Joey King shared that it was very emotional to say goodbye to a character after playing it for many years. She shared that she played the character “through such important moments in my life.” King is pretty busy as she has a multiple movie contract with Netflix, in association with her production company All The King’s Horses.
However, since she continue to remain with Netflix, it is still possible to bring her back in the role if the streamer chooses to develop a fourth film. She did say to ET while talking about the third film, “Elle has a lot of figuring out to do… in the end, she gives herself even more figuring out to do, which is crazy.”
The same might not be the case with Jacob Elordi. The Saltburn actor told Vanity Fair in 2020 about The Kissing Booth 3, “This is really the last kiss.” He joined Euphoria in 2019 which elevated him to a whole different level of fame as an actor.
Jacob Elordi might not return for The Kissing Booth 4
With more critically acclaimed projects up his sleeve, Jacob Elordi turned against The Kissing Booth franchise. During an interview with GQ, he called the movies “ridiculous” and shared that they were part of a trap. Elordi explained:
I didn’t want to make those movies before I made those movies. Those movies are ridiculous. They’re not universal. They’re an escape. That one’s a trap as well. Because it can become 15 for them, none for you. You have no original ideas and you’re dead inside. So it’s a fine dance. My ‘one for them,’ I’ve done it.
Many were not happy that he was dissatisfied with the teen movies that put him on the radar for other projects. He was called “pretentious” for his attitude, which he defended, saying, “How is caring about your output pretentious?”. He added:
But not caring, and knowingly feeding people shit, knowing that you’re making money off of people’s time, which is literally the most valuable thing that they have. How is that the cool thing?
It is clear that The Kissing Booth 4 will have no luck to land Elordi in the lead role. Joey King responded to Elordi’s comments during an interview with Variety, hinting that she doesn’t share his opinion about the films. She told the outlet, “I think it’s unfortunate anyone would feel that way.”
Netflix might still continue the franchise with or without Elordi, if there’s enough demand from fans. However, some have concerns for King’s career, which will be down in the drains if she continue to make one bad movie after another despite her great potential.
What might happen in The Kissing Booth 4?
One of the few things that many felt satisfied with The Kissing Booth films was Elle’s decision to follow neither Lee nor Noah. Viewers were happy that she decided to choose her own path and even more so when she joined University of Southern California (not Berkeley or Harvard) to study video game design.
We see the trio at the Los Angeles fair six years after Elle and Lee’s college admission, where Noah and Elle are meeting each other after a long gap. The movie ends with the two of them on the road on their respective motorcycles. Their relationship forward was left open, which could be what a fourth film might be about.
Noah and Elle could come back from the bike ride with a new perspective. A probable setting for the fourth film could be Lee and Rachel’s wedding where the film can come up with some relationship dramas. They could even bring Marco and Chloe into the picture and add a few new characters for a conflict in the plot.
However, if Jacob Elordi refuses to return, Noah will be out of the picture. He would somewhere off in LA or New York in some law firm. The story could explore a new relationship for Elle (probably Taylor Zakhar Perez’s Marco!), while also exploring her friendship with Lee. However, it is not likely that viewers would love this version of The Kissing Booth.
While he may hate the franchise now, Elordi had an idea for a fourth movie when he was promoting the third film in the series. He wanted to see the characters in a nursing home and wanted the film to explore what happened between their 20s and 90s. He shared with Entertainment Tonight:
I think I’d like to see them all in a nursing home together. That’d be cool, that’d be quite interesting. Maybe it’s like the film is a series of monologues of them recounting everything that happened from 20 to 92.
Some fans do seem to have a problem with the sudden time-jump in the third film. They didn’t love that the trilogy gave us an open ending after all this time, especially since they considered The Kissing Booth as the kind of trilogy that would give you the happily-ever-after climax. These fans might want Netflix to greenlight another movie.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
