Bad Bunny dons producer hat for Netflix adaptation of hit gay YA novel They Both Die at the End
Bad Bunny will executive produce alongside Drew Comins who worked on hit HBO series “Yellowjackets”. (FilmMagic/Axelle/Bauer-Griffin )
The hugely popular YA novel They Both Die at the End is getting its own TV adaptation – executive produced by the one and only Bad Bunny.
The New York Times bestselling novel takes place in a world where a dystopian company called ‘Death-Cast’ are able to accurately predict the date of a person’s death, and call the individual to let them know when their final day has dawned.
The book’s – and presumably, adaptation’s – plot follows two boys, Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio, who both receive their call from Death-Cast on the same day. They link up with each other through an app called ‘Last Friend’ and become determined to live an entire lifetime of memories in one single day.
Yes, it’s heartbreaking.
And, according to Deadline, it’s coming to TV with the help of Grammy Award-winner Bad Bunny, who will executive produce the series.
Netflix has nabbed the rights to the adaptation, and boasts an impressive creative team; the series creator is Bridgerton’s Chris Van Dusen, and Yellowjackets‘ Drew Comins will executive produce alongside Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny.
Van Dusen’s return to Netflix marks his first time working with the company since he served as executive producer/showrunner on the first two seasons of Shondaland’s hit period drama Bridgerton, each of them ranking as Netflix’s most popular English-language TV series at the time of their launch.
The adaptation had previously been announced as an HBO series.
They Both Die at the End, which made history as the first YA novel with queer Latinx characters to hit number one on The New York Times bestsellers list, was a breakout when it was first published in 2017.
The novel’s popularity rose again during the COVID-19 pandemic and hit No.1 again in April 2021 after it became a fixture under the TikTok hashtag #BookTok, propelling it to spend 15 consecutive months at the top of The New York Times YA bestsellers list and become the No.1 best-selling YA book of 2021.
Not every queer fan has been thrilled that Netflix has snagged the rights to the series though, seemingly referencing Netflix’s unfortunate habit of killing queer characters and cancelling queer series.
Bad Bunny has a few filmography credits to his name, having most recently starred in Bullet Train as The Wolf. As yet, he has not executive produced a film series.
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