- Nic F. Anderson
Bad Bunny Teamed With Hollywood to Bring A LGBTQ+ YA Novel to Netflix
Music sensation, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known as Bad Bunny, has teamed up with big names in Hollywood to bring LGBTQ+ young adult novel “They Both Die at the End” by Adam Silvera to Netflix.
On that team is the creator of Netflix’s smash hit “Bridgerton,” Chris Van Dusen, and executive producer of Showtime’s Emmy-nominated “Yellowjackets,” Drew Comins. In spring 2021, Entertainment One, the studio on the project, acquired the rights to Silvera’s novel.
According to the book’s synopsis, the story is set in the near future and follows two teenagers Mateo and Rufus. At the beginning of the book, they are strangers but their lives become connected when they download the “Last Friend” app after they receive a call from a corporation called “Death-Cast,” informing them their lives are ending in less than 24 hours.
Silvera’s novel made history as the first YA novel with queer Latinx characters to make it to the New York Times best sellers list when it first launched in 2017. The novel returned to the top spot during the pandemic – and stayed there for 15 months – after it became viral under the TikTok hashtag #BookTok.
The book's praise and publicity surpassed Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” as the number-one YA novel seller in the UK and Australia.
The production is expected to release on Netflix sometime in 2024.