‘After’ Movie’s Tentative Release Date Announced, Major Character Changes Revealed

The biggest thing in the One Direction fandom, aside from the eventual reunion of the band, is the upcoming film adaptation of “After,” a fanfiction novel series based on the band and written by Anna Todd. The movie was first announced back in 2014, and fans have been clamoring for more information on when it would actually be released. They finally got their tentative answer Sunday.

Todd held an author event to support the release of her most recent novel, “The Spring Girls,” and she brought along her friends Jennifer Gibgot, producer on “After,” and Jenny Gage, the film’s director, to give some updates on the movie.

“Right now, the goal is to have it out Valentine’s Day of next year,” Gibgot revealed. “To kind of take over the ‘Fifty Shades’ spot. To have one ‘After’ movie come out each Valentine’s Day over the next four years.”

That means fans might only have to wait a little over a year until they can see the movie version of their favorite book up on the big screen. Gibgot is just as excited about putting this film out into the world.

“I felt like that [honest, first love stories] was kind of missing in the marketplace,” she said. “Because ‘Fifty Shades’ is great, but it’s a fantasy, like, there’s no reality. We wanted to make, like, this is what it really feels like to have your first love. And they’re really interesting, well-done characters.”

The goal release date wasn’t the only thing the trio revealed during Sunday’s event. Todd explained that there will be a couple character changes from the book to the movie.

“There’s always going to be changes and I feel like all the changes so far have made the story better,” Todd began her reveal. “So, Tristan is a girl now. I really feel Tristan, I love his character, now her, and I feel like it makes so much sense. Also, we need to be more diverse in race, in sexuality, it just, it fits and it makes perfect sense for me.”

She also wanted fans to picture how “priceless” Tessa’s face will be when she watches Tristan and Steph make out in one of the scenes, which readers will remember from the book. Although this quite a bit of a change, she assured fans that the character of Tristan is still very much the same, regardless of gender.

Now that that’s settled, don’t get too comfortable, as the author revealed that one other character is getting the same changes made.

“In the Wattpad version, Professor Soto has a much bigger role, but if you read the book published, you notice that he’s kind of there and then not... but then in this version, Soto is a woman,” Todd revealed. “Which I think is good because, honestly, one, we need more women to balance all of the guys and also because I just think Tessa needs to be around more women.”

“Zed is still a guy,” Gage assured fans, but then quickly joked, “But Hardin…”

Her joke did its job and helped lighten the mood of the audience after all the big changes announced, but it’s unlikely they needed it. Just the thought of the movie coming out in just one year was probably enough to keep everyone happy for a very long time.