The trailer contains a number of nostalgic throwbacks to the successful 1999 film, including a cheerful cover of The Verve's Bitter Sweet Symphony, a famous black convertible and an even more famous rosary with an unholy hidden secret.
The series is also in line with the original and centers on a highly indecent bet between wealthy stepbrother and stepsister Caroline Merteuil (Sarah Catherine Hook) and Lucien Valmont (Zac Burgess), who run the Greek system at Manchester College, their Washington DC bordering university.
But when a hazing incident threatens their status, Caroline enlists Lucien's help to get the US Vice President's daughter, Annie (Savannah Lee Smith), to join her sorority.
“I need you to convince her in the way only you can,” she tells him, to which Lucien responds, “What’s in it for me?”
Caroline answers, “What you’ve always wanted. Me.”
Developed by Phoebe Fisher and Sara Goodman, the series also stars Sara Silva, John Harlan Kim, Khobe Clarke, Brooke Lena Johnson and Sean Patrick Thomas, who previously played Ronald in the original Cruel Intentions.
The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television, Amazon MGM Studios and Original Film. Along with Fisher and Goodman, Original Film's Neal H. Moritz and Pavun Shetty are also producing with Roger Kumble. Moritz produced the original film, which was written and directed by Kumble. Bruce Mellon and Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi of Iervolino & Bacardi Entertainment are the producers.
Cruel Intentions (1999) is a modern retelling of the 1782 novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, written by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. In the film, Upper East Side stepbrothers and stepsisters Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe) and Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar) make a bet on whether he can get the new principal's virgin daughter Annette (Reese Witherspoon) to bed.
The film was followed by Cruel Intentions 2 (2001) – originally intended to serve as the canceled Fox prequel series Manchester Prep – and Cruel Intentions 3 (2004), both starring different actors from the original. Although NBC shot a follow-up pilot in 2015, with Gellar reprising her role as Kathryn and Kate Levering replacing Witherspoon as Annette, the series was canceled.