Joey King
Elle Evans
Overview
With college decisions looming, Elle juggles her long-distance romance with Noah, changing relationship with bestie Lee and feelings for a new classmate.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
7 min readThe Kissing Booth 2, or the Art of Making a Sequel That Doesn’t Hate Itself
I’ll admit it: I went into The Kissing Booth 2 expecting to hate it. Not in a righteous, arms-crossed way—more like the resigned dread of someone who’s already eaten too much candy and knows the stomachache is coming. The first film, back in 2018, was a neon-lit monument to every tired trope of the teen-romance genre, a movie so aggressively committed to its own shallowness that it looped back around to being fascinating, like a car crash you can’t look away from.
But here’s the thing about sequels: they don’t have to be good to be revealing. And The Kissing Booth 2, for all its flaws, is a film that’s at least trying not to repeat its own mistakes. Whether that’s enough to redeem it is another question entirely.
The first Kissing Booth was a movie that seemed to actively resent its own protagonist. Elle Evans (Joey King) was a walking collection of quirks designed to make her “relatable”—she loved romance novels, she was clumsy, she had a best friend who was a boy, and she was not like other girls (a phrase that, in 2018, was already a red flag the size of a billboard). The film’s idea of feminism was to punish her for wanting things, for feeling things, for existing in a body that wasn’t just a prop in someone else’s story.
Noah Flynn (Jacob Elordi), her love interest, was a brooding Adonis who treated her like a prize he’d won at a carnival, and the movie acted like that was romantic. It wasn’t. It was exhausting.
So when I heard that The Kissing Booth 2 was “better” than the first, I was skeptical. Better how? Less sexist?
Less tonally unhinged? Less like it was written by someone who’d only ever seen a John Hughes movie in a fever dream? The answer, it turns out, is yes, but.
The sequel does give Elle more agency—she’s the one making decisions this time, not just reacting to the whims of the Flynn brothers. She’s applying to colleges, navigating a long-distance relationship, and, crucially, not being punished for wanting to explore her options. That’s progress, I guess.
But progress, in this case, feels a lot like treading water.
The film’s central conflict is one that will feel painfully familiar to anyone who’s ever been a teenager: Elle is going off to college, and Noah is staying behind. (Or is he? The film can’t quite decide, because consistency is not its strong suit.) Their relationship, which was already strained by the first movie’s insistence on treating love like a zero-sum game, is now being tested by distance, jealousy, and the sudden appearance of Marco (Taylor Zakhar Perez), a new love interest who’s basically Noah if Noah had been raised by wolves with better hair.
Full Plot (Spoilers)
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This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsBehind the Scenes of The Kissing Booth 2: Exes, Drama, and a Long-Distance Love Story
The Kissing Booth 2 (2020) brought back the sun-soaked romance of Elle Evans (Joey King) and Noah Flynn (Jacob Elordi), but this time with a twist: real-life tension between its stars. The Netflix sequel, directed by Vince Marcello, leaned into the chaos of senior year—college applications, shifting friendships, and a long-distance relationship that tested Elle’s loyalty. latestnetflix.com's view is that Behind the scenes, however, the drama wasn’t just scripted.
Exes on Set: Joey King and Jacob Elordi’s Awkward Reunion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uJtbYJpWG0
The first Kissing Booth film (2018) sparked a real-life romance between King and Elordi, who met on set and dated for nearly two years. By the time The Kissing Booth 2 began filming in 2019, the couple had reportedly split, making their on-screen chemistry a complicated affair. King later opened up about the experience, calling it "not easy" to work with an ex while pretending to be madly in love 
, . Though neither actor confirmed the exact timeline of their breakup, King’s comments suggested the emotional weight of their past relationship lingered during production.
Elordi, for his part, kept a lower profile about the dynamic, but their off-screen history added an unscripted layer to the film’s already dramatic premise. The sequel’s plot—Elle torn between Noah and a new love interest, Marco (Taylor Zakhar Perez)—mirrored the actors’ real-life romantic entanglements, even if unintentionally.
A Sequel with Higher Stakes (and More Characters)
The Kissing Booth 2 expanded the world of the first film, introducing new faces like Marco and Chloe (Maisie Richardson-Sellers), who complicated Elle’s relationships with Noah and her best friend, Lee (Joel Courtney). The story followed Elle as she navigated college applications, a long-distance romance with Noah (now studying in Harvard), and her growing bond with Marco, a transfer student with a mysterious past 
, , .
Critics weren’t kind to the sequel, calling it "treacly" and another dose of "prep school drama" . Yet, the film’s formula—sunny California aesthetics, teen angst, and a love triangle—kept audiences hooked. Netflix’s direct-to-streaming release in July 2020 ensured it reached a global audience, capitalizing on the first film’s success.
Molly Ringwald’s Cameo: A Nostalgic Touch
One of the sequel’s more surprising additions was Molly Ringwald, the iconic ’80s teen-movie star, who played Elle’s mother. Ringwald’s involvement added a meta layer to the franchise, bridging the gap between classic teen rom-coms and modern Netflix fare. While her role was small, it was a nod to the genre’s roots—and a draw for older viewers who grew up on her films like The Breakfast Club , .
The Verdict: More of the Same, But Fans Didn’t Mind
Despite mixed reviews, The Kissing Booth 2 delivered exactly what its audience wanted: more Elle and Noah, more high school drama, and a cliffhanger ending to set up the third film. The behind-the-scenes tension between King and Elordi only added to the intrigue, proving that sometimes, real life is messier than fiction.
For better or worse, the sequel leaned into its formula, banking on nostalgia and the chemistry (or lack thereof) of its leads. Whether that was enough to justify its existence depends on who you ask—but with a third film already in the works, Netflix clearly bet on fans craving more.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
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