Hunter Davenport and Dean-Allie Relationship

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from Season 1 of “Off Campus” now streaming on Prime Video.

“Off Campus” — adapted by showrunner Louise Levy — arrives on Prime Video with one of the most passionate pre-built audiences of any series this year. Based on Elle Kennedy’s beloved hockey romance novels, the show follows Hannah Wells (Ella Bright), a college student and aspiring singer-songwriter who agrees to a fake relationship with Briar University hockey captain Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli) to get the attention of her crush Justin (Josh Heuston). 

But Season 1 is not just Hannah and Garrett’s story. By design, it also folds in the secret, combustible romance between Hannah’s best friend Allie Hayes (Mika Abdalla) and charming defenseman Dean Di-Laurentis (Stephen Kalyn). In Kennedy’s books, their story unfolds in an entirely separate novel. Here, the show folds it into Season 1 entirely leaving audiences shocked at the end of Episode 5 when the relationship is revealed, with Episode 6 rewinding to show exactly how they got there. The remaining episodes then make clear that book fans are getting Dean and Allie far sooner than anyone might have expected.

The “Off Campus” production also reworked plot points that no longer hold in a modern, post name, image and likeness (NIL) college sports landscape, added Jules as Logan’s nonbinary sibling and self-appointed campus commentator (a character who doesn’t exist in the books) deepened the Garrett-Logan friendship with new tension and amplified Logan’s simmering crush on Hannah well beyond what Kennedy had put on the page.

However, the finale is where the show takes its biggest diversion from the source material by making Hunter Davenport (Charlie Evans) a central figure in Dean and Allie’s conflict, a role he does not play in the books. Hunter is stubborn, arrogant and gifted enough to play for the Briar hockey team, yet refuses to for reasons the show has yet to reveal. He is also, Allie decides, exactly who she needs to hold up her end of the deal she and Dean have struck — all without knowing his actual name. His character also carries a history with Dean’s sister, Summer, who leads Kennedy’s “The Chase.” And with Dean already at odds with Hunter before Allie even enters the picture, viewers should buckle in for some juicy conflict next season.

Canonically, Logan (Antonio Cipriano) and Grace’s (India Fowler) story from Kennedy’s “The Mistake” follows Hannah and Garrett’s conclusion. But all signs point to fan favorites Dean and Allie taking center stage for Season 2 instead of Season 3. On whether those theories are correct, Levy tells Variety, “I don’t want to say anything yet, but I think book fans will be very excited about Season 2.” Asked the same question, though, Bright has a much more telling answer — she gives a convincing and enthusiastic nod.

Variety spoke with Levy and Bright about the decision behind weaving Dean and Allie into Season 1, the NIL landscape that forced their hand on some of the book’s most popular plot points and what Hunter Davenport’s early arrival signals about where this show is going.

Were you a romance reader before? Were you aware of the hockey romance genre and the “Off Campus” series?

Louise Levy: I’m a big romance book fan, but I had not read these when I heard about them. Temple Hill brought them to me and I binged them — I actually listened on audiobook at 2.0 speed. I’ve told Elle, so I’m not spoiling anything, but 2.0 speed is maybe not the best way to listen to romance novels. For some scenes it’s fine, and then you get to the sex scenes and you’re like, I have to slow this down. But I needed to get through them in time for my meeting, and I just fell in love with these characters and got really excited about bringing them to screen.

Ella Bright: I had seen them on BookTok, and knew the ice hockey romance genre a little from “Icebreaker.” When the casting call came through, I skim-read the book and fell in love with Hannah immediately. The first thing I ordered after getting the part was the entire series — I read “The Deal” in one day. I’ve read “The Score” and “The Mistake” too, but I’m superstitious, so I wanted to wait until we were greenlit for Season 2 before going further. Which we are, so I’m excited to get to the next ones.

The fan base for these books is famously large and protective — these are the most famous hockey romance books on the market. How did you approach that?

Levy: I don’t think I was fully aware of just how popular they were — I keep discovering new things. It was really important to me to honor the fans and their favorite moments. We had eight episodes, so we did our best to bring those critical moments to screen. I always had our Amazon executive Brianna Kaufman — who is actually the reason we’re all here, she’s the one who brought the book to Amazon and is a superfan — and our producer Annika Patton, also a huge fan, in my corner checking things and making sure we weren’t veering too far off course.

I’m sure so many people are going to compare them, but “Heated Rivalry” broke open the mainstream appetite for hockey romance right before “Off Campus” came out. Its stars are basically the most famous people on the planet right now. What was that like to watch, knowing what you were sitting on?

Levy: I’m so excited for the world to fall in love with this cast. “Heated Rivalry” is extraordinary — I loved that show. They’re very different shows, but if we can draw even a piece of that audience I’d be thrilled. They might come for the hockey romance, but hopefully they stay for what makes us different: the romance that dovetails with deep friendships, the college ensemble, the music.

Bright: It was crazy. I’m from London — ice hockey was not something I knew anything about going in. My first ever hockey game was a fake one on set. We had no idea all these ice hockey shows were being filmed at the same time. When “Heated Rivalry” came out, I binged it in one day. And then watching them grow and have the world fall in love with not only their relationship but the sport and the whole genre — it was surreal. We met up in L.A. in January at the peak of it, and were just like, “What is happening?!” We even got to meet Connor Storrie at a party. He said he couldn’t wait for our show. I told him I was such a big fan. I think the world is just really ready for a lot of ice hockey right now.

The casting announcement got some backlash online. What made each of these actors ultimately right for their characters?

Levy: It’s so hard, because when the announcement is made it’s just headshots. We don’t get to show you the reasons why we saw these characters in these people. At the end of the day, these are actors — it’s an art form, it’s a skill. We needed people who could truly act, because we’re writing some meaty material for them, and on top of that they needed to embody the essence of these characters. They may not be exactly the same as the physical descriptions, but I think they capture the essence, which for me was more important. We did a big chemistry read day where we saw all four guys together, saw Allie and Hannah together, saw the romantic couples, and put Josh in a room with Belmont and Ella to watch the love triangle play out. Our cast just kind of materialized in front of us.

Ella Bright is significantly younger than most of the cast, getting the role when she was freshly 18. This garnered some negativity online, because this is a show with significant intimate content. How did you approach that?

Levy: I had a conversation with Ella before we closed her deal to make sure she knew what was coming. She’d read the book, so she already understood, but I walked her through everything and made sure she was comfortable and confident. If I had felt she wasn’t ready, I would have pumped the brakes immediately. But she was so game. And we have an extraordinary intimacy coordinator, Kathy Kadler, who had conversations with not just Belmont and Ella but with all the actors who had any intimacy work — really understanding what made everyone comfortable, what they felt good about, what they didn’t. We never did anything that made anyone uncomfortable before we ever rolled a frame of camera.

There’s really no other way to put it — the books are colloquially referred to as “smut,” and, Ella, you came straight from a children’s show. How was that jump?

Bright: I always made this joke with my mom that Mallory Towers was a school-based program — here she goes, she’s graduated, she’s going to college. I had never done anything intimate on screen before, so obviously there were nerves. But it couldn’t have been a more comfortable set. Belmont is the greatest, we had an intimacy coordinator throughout, and there is truly nothing inherently sexy about filming a sex scene — it is all angles and craft. We were laughing between takes. After every one of those scenes wrapped, we just went and got donuts from craft services.

In the books the boys are all the same age, but you changed it for the show. Why make Tucker younger and shift Dean up?

Levy: Each season is a semester, so two seasons covers a full year — slowing down that timeline opens things up considerably. The biggest change was Tucker being younger rather than the oldest, because he’s the last book, and we need to make sure he’s still at Briar by the time we get there. It’s also just about building a cohesive group where everyone has their role.

The show really leans into Logan’s crush on Hannah. You also changed the kiss — in the book it’s Dean, in the show it’s Logan. What was behind that?

Levy: I love that scene in the books, and I certainly would have loved to do the Dean version. But by changing it to Logan, it allowed us to play on his crush and support his story in a way that kiss doesn’t necessarily support Dean’s story this season. We launched Logan’s feelings in the pilot and this let us deepen that slow burn. It just made more narrative sense for where each character is going.

Do you think Hannah and Garrett are even aware of how Logan feels?

Bright: I honestly don’t think Hannah has a clue — she is completely in her own world with Garrett. Garrett might pick up on some things Logan says, because Logan is maybe less subtle than he thinks he’s being. I love the kiss change, though. For Hannah, it’s honestly just to prove to Garrett there’s nothing there. For Logan, it clearly means so much more. Watching his journey through the season is genuinely heartbreaking.

When do you think Hannah actually realizes she has feelings for Garrett?

Bright: There are a lot of conflicting things happening in Episodes 2 and 3 where she can’t tell what’s real and what’s performance for Justin’s benefit. But I think the moment the pin really drops is the drunk Shakespeare scene, where she’s talking to Justin about what a song means to him and his answer is just so surface level. She’d had a very similar conversation with Garrett earlier in that episode, and that contrast — the depth she found with Garrett versus what she has with Justin — is where she fully realizes who she’s actually fallen for. The Thanksgiving scene is another turning point. She originally writes Garrett off completely, and watching her realize the genuineness underneath his surface is really beautiful. They’re both very broken in different ways, and it’s something to watch them find each other.

Beau has a much bigger role in the show than in the books. What was behind expanding him?

Levy: The Beau character allows us to build out more of Dean’s world and establish that the only sport on campus isn’t hockey — there’s football, even if that team isn’t particularly good. But the other real benefit is that Dean, Beau and Tucker all exist in the same frat as Justin, so we buy Justin being part of their orbit even though he’s not a jock. He wouldn’t be in their world otherwise, and that’s what allows us to believably have Hannah and Garrett needing to perform their fake relationship for him.

Jules is entirely new — not in the books at all. What was the thinking behind adding that character?

Levy: We’re a hockey show, and not everyone watching will know what’s happening on the ice. Jules gives us a narrator and commentator, but with a lot more personality than dry hockey commentary — more of a Mouth from “One Tree Hill” kind of energy. But we also wanted a character with their finger on the pulse of campus drama, because the whole engine of this season is this fake relationship. Rather than have that be an outsider, it felt more fun to give it to someone with genuine inside knowledge by being a sibling of one of the hockey players.

Garrett and Logan are best friends, but have a real tension in the show that isn’t quite there in the books. Why introduce that friction to a friendship that is so ironclad?

Levy: I think it makes their friendship even more ironclad when they come through it. It also showcases something important about Garrett — if he’s not even telling his best friend about his history with his dad, he’s been hiding that part of himself from even his closest people. It then makes his relationship with Hannah even more special, because she becomes the one person who knows. She hasn’t even told Allie about what happened to her, which is different from the books. So the two of them each carry something they’re hiding from the world, but they recognize each other in a way that feels unique.

The show deals with heavy content. What conversations did you have with Ella about portraying Hannah’s past trauma without letting it define her?

Levy: Ella just got it from the very first conversation. Hannah is someone who believes she’s broken, but doesn’t want to be defined by that — and in hiding it, she’s inadvertently defining herself by it. Her arc this season becomes learning how to accept that this happened while also letting it go, so she can realize she is whole. That scene in the finale where she finally tells Allie, and Allie just accepts her — it was actually their audition scene during the chemistry reads. It made me cry in the room, it made me cry when they shot it, and it makes me cry every time I watch it.

Bright: The deeper aspects of this character are genuinely what drew me to the role. Hannah’s struggle gets materialized into this writer’s block she has — she isn’t a fully realized singer-songwriter yet, and what draws her to Justin is his ability to externalize the internal, which she can’t do. Finding the strength to sing her own song at the pop showcase, to stand alone on that stage and build all of those elements herself — that was the emotional culmination of everything. I really hope people can see themselves in this storyline and find some comfort in it.

Fans are going to freak out about Dean and Allie’s storyline being woven into Season 1 rather than held for its own season. Was that always the plan?

Levy: That’s been by design since my very first pitch to Temple Hill and Amazon. I find it very difficult to invest in a couple and grow them entirely from scratch. I wanted viewers to know who they were going to be tuning in for next. Allie felt so organic, because she’s Hannah’s best friend and Dean is already there, and their love story in the book is a secret — so why not let it be a surprise, even to book fans, when we’re going to launch it? Some things had to work a little differently because of the timing and the way we platform them, but I promise all the fan-favorite things are still intended and planned. There’s still a lot of road with those two.

When Hannah eventually finds out about Allie and Dean, do you think she’ll see it coming?

Bright: Zero clue. It will be a genuinely shocking moment for her, just like it is in the books. And I love reading the theories online about who Season 2 is going to be — people debating whether we’ll get Dean and Allie — and I’m just sitting there thinking, you already got them in Season 1.

The show also changes two of the biggest narrative plot points from the books — the Hannah and Garrett breakup and the campus-wide hands-off law. What drove those decisions?

Levy: When Elle wrote the books, college athletes couldn’t make money off their image and likeness — now they can. A big part of Hannah breaking up with Garrett in the books is that he needs his dad to pay his tuition at Briar, which in today’s landscape just doesn’t hold up. That’s also why we folded in the Liquid IV storyline, to show what NIL looks like for him now. But the casualty of that change is that the campus-wide hands-off law made a little less sense too, because now Garrett is the one who breaks up with Hannah. If he ended things, there’s no world in which he then gets to tell her she’s off limits to everyone else. So we found a different way to earn it back so we could still deliver that fan-favorite moment in a way that actually tracks.

Bright: I love the change in their breakup — I find it so much more heartbreaking. They are both having their worst days at the exact same time, and if either one had been in a different place that day, the other could have talked them through it. But because they’re both in that pain simultaneously, there’s no version of that day where they don’t break up.

Hunter Davenport showing up in the finale as a central antagonist is a significant departure from the books. What was behind pulling him in this early, and in that way?

Levy: He does exist in the “Off Campus” books before we get to the Briar U series, and we felt he’d become really important even earlier than his own book. He also comes from the same world as Dean, which made his arrival feel organic. We needed to throw a wrench into Dean and Allie’s arrangement to elongate their story, and pulling from that universe felt right — especially because he is a key player in Summer’s story when we eventually get there. Knock on wood, I would love to keep making this for as long as people want to watch it.

What were your favorite scenes to film?

Bright: Malone’s is everyone’s favorite set. Mika and I had so much fun behind that bar. The sets were always decorated to match whatever month we were in, and there’s a fun slogan on the bar in each episode — a little Easter egg if you can catch it.

But my absolute favorite moment in the whole show isn’t even in the books. It’s when Hannah plays “Baby, Now That I’ve Found You” over the announcer booth at the ice rink and Garrett comes out onto the ice to find her. I got to be in video village to watch the camera spin around Belmont as he takes his helmet off, and I just got so emotional. Hearing my own voice fill that huge space for the first time — there were a lot of tears that day. That moment is what the show is to me.

Season 2 is already written, and you’re going back into production immediately after the press tour. What can you share?

Levy: All eight scripts are written and we have a very exciting plan for the season. I don’t want to say anything yet — but I think book fans will be very excited.

Will Season 2 center around Dean and Allie?

[Bright smiles and nods]

This interview has been edited and condensed.