We Were Liars got viewers invested in the Sinclairs matriarchs — but who should play the younger versions of the beloved moms in the Family of Liars prequel series?
Based on E. Lockhart‘s YA book series, We Were Liars centers on the affluent Sinclair family, known for the idyllic summers they spend on their secluded island. Prime Video’s adaptation, which premiered on Wednesday, June 18, focused largely on The Liars: Cadence (Emily Alyn Lind), Gat (Shubham Maheshwari), Mirren (Esther McGregor) and Johnny (Joseph Zada).
It was their parents — Penny (Caitlin FitzGerald), Carrie (Mamie Gummer) and Bess (Candice King) — who stole the show though. Luckily, Lockhart already wrote Family of Liars, which would show the moms as teenagers — and the actors have their fan cast locked in.
“I would cast my little sister,” Emily, 23, exclusively told Us Weekly about sister Alyvia Alyn Lind. “Because that would be so perfect, right? That would be so meta.”
Emily wanted to take it one step further, adding, “I would just put my whole family in it.” (For those who need a refresher, Emily’s mother is Barbara Alyn Woods and she also has an older sister, Natalie Alyn Lind. The entire Alyn Lind family has left their mark with a variety of shows across TV and movies.)
“Other than that, I always thought it’d be a really cool idea if we all just played our mothers and made it cool like that,” Emily teased. “But if they’re not going to do that then I think that it would be really cool for my little sister and Joseph’s little brother. We all have little siblings in the industry — so it’d be so funny to just pass on the legacy to them.”
The rest of the We Were Liars cast followed in Emily’s lead. Maheshwari showed support for Emily’s siblings, but also suggested that executive producers keep the process an open casting call.
“It would be really cool if they do an open casting call thing. Then someone we’ve never heard of gets to do those incredible roles just like me,” he told Us. “That would actually be pretty cool. It would just mean they would see a lot of people auditioning.”
King, 38, called Emily’s fan cast a “really neat” idea before breaking down the potential for a prequel with FitzGerald, 41.
“They all feel very — even though they’re in their early 20s and late teens — the We Were Liars cast just felt young. Whereas I feel like when I was growing up, I would look at kids in high school on TV and be like, ‘I don’t look like that,’” King explained. “So I do appreciate it.”
She continued: “I would like to keep this young feeling of these sisters. It would be so much fun though. I think we’d love the ’90s, the fashion and the music. There were no cell phones organically written into the show.”
FitzGerald agreed with how the prequel would be “a real revisit to our youth” after the We Were Liars novel was optioned as part of a trio of deals with Lockhart. While no official series order has been announced yet, executive producer Julie Plec teased to Us that there’s already ideas forming if Family of Liars was to be adapted.
“I’ll tell you this. We read a young actress named Madison Watts for We Were Liars. She is — I am not kidding — an absolute doppelganger for Candice King,” Plec shared. “My only fear is that by the time we make a second season, she might be too old to play the part. But if anyone should play young Bess, it’s probably her.”
We Were Liars is currently streaming on Prime Video.
