Warning! Spoilers for To All the Boys: Always and Forever below.
As with any book adaptation, To All the Boys: Always and Forever needed to make some changes from page to screen. Naturally, some of those changes were major departures from Jenny Han's book. Here's a breakdown of the biggest changes that the Netflix movie made.
To All the Boys: Always and Forever wraps up Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor) and Peter Kavinsky's (Noah Centineo) love story. The pair is getting ready to graduate high school and have made plans to attend Stanford University together. But when Lara Jean gets rejected from that school and makes the decision to attend another college, their plans drastically change. Will their love be able to survive the distance?
The Netflix adaptation of To All the Boys: Always and Forever made some significant changes to Peter and Lara Jean's story from the book series. Some alterations were probably made for logistical reasons, while others benefitted the film overall. Let's look at what the movie changed.
Peter and Lara Jean's College Choices
In the Netflix adaptation, Peter and Lara Jean have their hearts set on attending Stanford together. Peter is awarded a lacrosse scholarship and Lara Jean wants to be with him and remain somewhat close to her family in Portland, Oregon. But when Lara Jean gets rejected after Peter is admitted, she decides to go to her back-up school, the University of California, Berkeley. However, at the suggestion of her sister Margot, Lara Jean applies to New York University in order to have an east coast option. After traveling to New York City for a senior class trip, Lara Jean falls in love with the university and decides that it is the school for her.
In the novel version of To All The Boys 3, all of Lara Jean's college choices are on the east coast because that is where she's located. The book actually takes place in Virginia, and Peter and Lara Jean's joint first-choice college is the University of Virginia. Lara Jean is rejected by that college, so decides to go to her backup school, College of William & Mary. But after being removed from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's waitlist and being granted acceptance, she visits the school and falls in love with it. Although it's even further away from Peter than the College of William & Mary would have been, she decides to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The To All The Boys movie setting was likely changed from Virginia to Portland for logistical reasons, but the college selections changed in order to up the stakes in the movie. In the book, Lara Jean's first and second choice colleges are still just a few hours from Peter, while in the movie, she had to decide between a college that was about an hour away and one that was on the opposite coast. That decision fueled the conflict in the movie, which led to Lara Jean and Peter's dramatic temporary breakup.
Peter's Family Drama
In the first To All the Boys movie, Peter and Lara Jean bond over missing a parent from their lives. Lara Jean's mom died and Peter's dad left his family. The drama with Peter's dad comes back around in To All the Boys: Always and Forever: His dad fights to work his way back into Peter's life, and Peter resists until he receives valuable advice about love that he takes to heart. In the novel, Peter's dad is not in the picture. Instead, his mom causes a bit of drama in his life. Also in the book, Peter considers transferring to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after freshman year in order to be with Lara Jean. After learning this, Peter's mom convinces Lara Jean to break up with him so he can have a good college experience.
Leaving this storyline out of the Netflix movie benefitted To All The Boys: Always and Forever. Lara Jean and Peter's breakup is a pivotal part of the movie, so it's more meaningful that the two of them come to the conclusion that they should break up. It's a reflection of the characters' maturity as they are about to head off to the next chapter of their lives. Inserting the storyline about Peter's dad also demonstrates growth in Peter's character. Over the course of the three films, Peter has gone from a loveable jock to a mature young man willing to forgive his father's mistakes and take on a complex understanding of love and relationships.
The Circumstances of Lara Jean and Peter's Breakup
In To All The Boys: Always and Forever, Lara Jean and Peter's imminent breakup looms over them from the moment she tells him she wants to go to New York University. The breakup finally happens on prom night. The young couple has a great time at the dance and nearly sleep together for the first time, but right as it's about to happen, Peter stops Lara Jean. He realizes it's one of the many ways she appears to be trying to say goodbye to him, so he decides to beat her to the punch and just end their relationship then and there. In the book, Lara Jean follows through on Peter's mom's request. In both the book and movie, Lara Jean's dad gets engaged to a woman named Trina, but in the book, Lara Jean gets drunk and breaks up with Peter after the bachelorette party. She tells him the distance simply won't work.
Lara Jean is a massive fan of romantic comedies and the circumstances regarding their movie breakup pays tribute to that. Prom night is a right of passage in many teen movies; it only makes sense that Lara Jean would romanticize the night and try to make it the occasion of her first time with Peter. Having Peter initiate the breakup on prom night fits in with the common romantic comedy trope of giving the central couple a dramatic fight. Their breakup gives way to another vital element of romantic comedies — the grand gesture. In the book, Peter and Lara Jean reconcile after having a conversation at her father's wedding. In the movie, Peter surprises Lara Jean after the wedding: He arranges for her to find her senior yearbook inscribed with a love letter from Peter. It's a new contract for continuing their relationship, which is a callback to the first film in the series. This sweet reconciliation wouldn't have the same payoff if it followed the way their breakup played out in the book. It's just one of the multiple ways that the changes from the To All The Boys book improved Always and Forever.