Exclusive Interview
‘Virgin River’ Boss Reveals Status of Young Everett & Sarah Prequel Series
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Virgin River Season 6.]
One of the brightest spots of Virgin River‘s stellar Season 6 was the flashbacks of young Everett (Callum Kerr) and Sarah (Jessica Rothe). Fans saw the love story between Mel’s parents at its genesis. The show traveled back to the 1970s to when Everett met Sarah for the first time — hitchhiking on the side of the road.
Their romance spanned decades, and Virgin River’s only touched the surface of this pivotal relationship. Swooon spoke with showrunner Patrick Sean Smith about what’s next for Everett and Sarah. First and foremost, the reported prequel series is “still currently in development.”
Courtesy of Netflix
But you can expect to see Everett and Sarah back in Season 7. “I think there’s more opportunity to fill out their story dramatically,” Smith continued. “There’s so much that was presumed, and some things that have been referenced, but that’s where I think the more we can fill out this love that spans almost 40 years, if not 40-plus years, the better. I think there’s a lot of big events and milestones that can happen along the way that we can highlight as we fill that out.”
Young Everett and Sarah’s love story will continue to connect to Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) to her family. Smith doesn’t plan on doing standalone flashback episodes “because I think they were most effective in that they were supporting and really connecting Mel and Everett in a more profound way through her mom. So I wouldn’t want it to feel trope-y or just do it just to do it.”
When it comes to the potential prequel series and the flashbacks, Smith wants to build out the past by diving into other characters as well. “The intent in the prequel, too, and we get a hint of it in Season 7 through Hope’s character is just filling out more of the history of Hope’s family, her relationship to the area,” Smith told Swooon. “In the pilot, she says the McRae cabin is a place that everybody within 50 miles knows, but we’ve never really explored her family legacy to that and what her relationship is with her family. In Season 7, we’re really doing a bigger deep dive into Hope’s character and her past, which would then coincide with a lot of the events of what could potentially be in the prequel.”
Outside of a prequel, Smith is thinking “all the time” about ways of expanding the world of Virgin River, including more spinoffs.
“It’s a rich world with rich characters. Putting romance forward feels like there’s a ton of potential. And that’s to Robyn Carr’s credit. Each book focuses on a different couple in every book. And what Sue Tenney did very smartly was take characters from the first couple of books and then putting them into an ensemble. But, I mean, there’s huge potential. It’s a great story engine.”
Do you want to see more Everett and Sarah? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Virgin River, Season 6, Streaming Now, Netflix
