If you’re as obsessed with Off Campus as I am, you’re going to want to sit down for this. On May 28, it was finally confirmed that Allie and Dean — played by Mika Abdalla and Stephen Kalyn, respectively — will lead Off Campus Season 2. For those fans who jumped onto the series from the Prime Video show, this news may not be surprising. But for lovers of the original book series by Elle Kennedy, however, it’s definitely a switch-up.
The second novel in Kennedy’s series, The Mistake, features John Logan and Grace Ivers. While Logan had a starring role in Off Campus Season 1, Grace wasn’t involved at all — in fact, casting for that character wasn’t even announced until after Season 1 aired on May 13. When it comes to Allie and Dean, however, the couple’s early storyline was majorly built up in Season 1, which was a big departure from the first novel (it centered pretty heavily on the main couple, Garrett Graham and Hannah Wells). That was very intentional. “I didn’t want to have to generate a brand-new love story from scratch every season. I wanted it to be planted in the season prior,” series showrunner Louisa Levy previously told Her Campus. With Allie and Dean’s relationship set, it only makes sense they’ll take the reins as the stars of Season 2.
In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Abdalla and Kalyn opened up about their leading roles in the next season, and what they learned from Belmont Cameli and Ella Bright, who played the star characters of Season 1, Garrett and Hannah. “I learned a lot from these two, these great actors over here. I’m just really excited to get into that world,” Kalyn told Cosmo. Similarly, Abdalla said, “[Cameli and Bright] had so much heavy lifting to do this season, while we all got to hang out and have a good time. Watching them in the trenches, I’m a little nervous, but I am excited. We’re really looking forward to getting the scripts and seeing what we have coming for us, because we’ve heard little bits about what’s about to happen. As actors, we’re ready to be serious.”
Because Off Campus is built similarly to Bridgerton, it was always clear that different relationships would take center stage in different seasons — it was just a question of when Allie and Dean’s time would come. Knowing that, Abdalla approached Allie as a series regular from day one. She previously told Her Campus, “[The showrunners] really just wanted to make sure that all of us [in the cast] across the board knew we weren’t going into this as supporting characters — that we were beginning to form leads for later seasons. They wanted to make sure that we dove into it the way we would dive into it if we were leading the season. That’s how they treated us on set, too.” There was no hierarchy, despite Cameli and Bright’s main storyline playing out. “Ella and Belmont were our leaders, and they set the tone,” Abdalla said. “They did a great job of setting everything up for us and the kind of work environment that we were in.”
Now that we know Allie and Dean will lead Off Campus Season 2, I’ll just be sitting here waiting for it to hit Prime Video.