The Pretty Little Liars creator’s next Hulu series is about a serial killer’s daughter coming home
The Pretty Little Liars creator is plotting a Hulu crime thriller adapted from a YA novel — with a serial killer at its core.
If you thought Pretty Little Liars had exhausted every possible way to make you suspicious of the person next door, you were mistaken. Marlene King, who conjured up the original teenage sleuth soap for the 2010s, is back — this time plotting murders and mysteries at Hulu. Her latest project: turning the brand-new young adult crime novel Thornbird by Elle Kennedy into a streaming thriller. If you know King's track record, you already know to expect a tangled network of secrets, cryptic messages, and at least one character you absolutely shouldn’t trust.
Thornbird shot to New York Times bestseller status straight after its 30 June 2026 publication.
The Setup: Dark secrets in Tennessee
Thornbird isn’t just another high school drama with a slightly ominous title. The main character is 17-year-old Ryan Shipley, whose life is already the stuff of tabloid nightmares. Her father, Gabriel Thorn, is a notorious serial killer — caught a decade before our story begins. Ryan has returned, under her real surname, to her old stomping grounds in Starling, Tennessee, mostly hoping nobody puts two and two together.
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But of course, in the way of these things, Starling is hardly your average sleepy town. Mysterious texts roll in, odd coincidences mount up, and an unsettling note pops up, leaving both the townsfolk and the reader wondering: does Ryan know more than she's letting on, or has she just drawn the absolute short straw when it comes to family legacies?
Who's making it happen?
On the telly side, King is not just writing the adaptation but executive producing as well, alongside Elle Kennedy herself and Lauren Wagner. King has effectively made a cottage industry of good-looking people with dodgy secrets: aside from the original Pretty Little Liars, she’s also responsible for Now & Then, If These Walls Could Talk, Famous in Love, and more PLL spin-offs than you probably recall existed (there's even a Ravenswood in there). Hardly surprising Hulu tapped her for something like this.
Worth knowing: Kennedy published Thornbird under the slightly mysterious author name E. Kennedy. The show, in early development with Hulu and 20th Television, hasn’t announced a cast yet — so if you spot any cryptic text messages about auditions, let us know.
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