From BookTok To Screen: Off Campus Is Leading Hockey Romance 

Bringing a massively popular book series to life comes with high stakes, but the cast of Prime Video’s Off Campus is embracing the challenge with open arms. As the hit hockey romance makes its highly anticipated leap from BookTok phenomenon to television screen, the cast are navigating a whole new world of sports culture, expanded character arcs and surprising creative shifts. Balancing heavy drama, laugh-out-loud comedy and genuine heart, the ensemble is redefining what a sports romance looks like. I was at the Sao Paulo premiere to witness the fans going wild over the series and the cast. I also spoke with the cast about stepping onto the ice, giving secondary characters their own agency and finding their lane in the streaming zeitgeist. 

Belmont Cameli, who stars as the lead Garrett Graham, believes that hockey hasn’t really had a lot of narratives like this around it before, like baseball or football. “I think our show does hockey really well and it does romance quite well as well.”

Ella Bright, who brings the modern-day version of Hannah Wells to life, found herself navigating entirely uncharted territory when it came to the sport itself. “When we were filming, I was like, ‘I don’t know anything about ice hockey,’” Bright laughs, remembering her initial confusion. 

She continued: “For Ella, I love the balance that she has. We see her past as well in scenes, and then we see her fun, lively side and the girl behind the piano.”

Every great romantic adaptation is defined by those singular, breathtaking moments that instantly burn themselves into the fandom’s collective consciousness—think the dock scene in The Summer I Turned Pretty or the staircase scene in Maxton Hall. When asked which moment will serve as the undeniable heartbeat of Off Campus, the cast points directly to the middle of the season. “I think for Garrett and Hannah, it’s episode four,” Ella Bright shares. “And for the whole ensemble, episode five. Everyone is so sick in that episode. And it’s like, it’s a great episode.”  Cameli agrees that the intimacy of the fourth episode will be a major turning point for the central couple: “I think episode four in Garrett’s bedroom is a standout scene.” 

One of the most thrilling evolutions in the screen adaptation of Off Campus is the deliberate decision to expand its horizon. Supporting characters are no longer just chess pieces on someone else’s board; they have their own vibrant lives and agency. For Mika Abdalla, ensuring Allie was multi-dimensional was paramount.

“I think that’s something that’s super unique to doing this specific type of show where there are established books for each character already,” she explained. “So, even though we’re not getting to Allie’s primary romance story quite yet this season, I still know exactly where her head is at in this moment because of what we learn about her later on in the books.”

This long-term vision was deeply integrated into the writer’s room from day one. “That was something that was really important to our showrunners and our writers. They wanted to make sure that each character could genuinely be the lead of their own season, because they will eventually, hopefully, get to. That was a massive focus for everybody.”

Then there is Justin, arguably the most mysterious character on the canvas. As one of the rare non-hockey players in a sports-centric narrative, his presence demands a different kind of magnetism. To ground him, Josh Hueston built a rich, unwritten universe from scratch. “With any character I play, I kind of start with a physical journal and write everything from their very first childhood memory up until where we are at today,” he revealed. “Because Justin’s story isn’t as completely fleshed out in the early books, a lot of it was up to what I would imagine. I also spoke to [author] Elle Kennedy a bunch as well—she’s beautiful and awesome! That’s just part of the fun is like, you get to figure out why they’re there.”

Fans of the books might notice a glaring change to Justin in the TV series: he’s Australian. Heuston, a native Aussie, explains how an open-minded audition process fundamentally shifted the character’s identity. “I originally auditioned in an American accent,” he laughs. “Then in the room, they said, ‘All right, do it in British now.’ I did it. Then they were like, ‘All right, just do it in Australian.’ We did it in Australian, then we actually went back to American! There was a lot of conversation over what accent Justin should ultimately have, but it eventually landed on Australian.”

With hockey romance exploding into its own bona fide TV subgenre, the competitive landscape is fierce (ahem, Heated Rivalry?). Yet the team behind Off Campus sees no need for hostile rivalry. When asked what sets their show apart, Abdalla answers thoughtfully, “I just think it’s incredibly unique in how many different elements are balanced perfectly together. There’s deep love, there’s heavy drama, and there are genuinely laugh-out-loud comedic moments. It’s an all-encompassing look at life and youth in a way that I think is really cool.” 

Hueston adds, “There’s just been adaptations in sport and romance for years and years and I guess timing wise, our shows are getting put together in a lot of ways, but they’re also just their own things and being put in that basket with them is great.” 

Of course, the immediate greenlight for a second season is no anomaly; it is a calculated feature of Prime Video’s dominant strategy in the young adult space. The platform has cornered the market on premium, female-led YA storytelling, building a formidable slate that captures the cultural zeitgeist. From the massive, multi-season grip of The Summer I Turned Pretty and the Culpables film series to the addictive drama of We Were Liars and Maxton Hall, Prime Video consistently proves it knows exactly how to translate internet obsession into streaming gold. By centering complex young women navigating love, trauma and identity, the streamer has created a safe haven for BookTok’s most fiercely guarded stories and Off Campus is the latest crown jewel in that empire. 

All episodes of Off Campus are now streaming on Prime Video. —Marriska Fernandes