RIV4LRIES

RIV4LRIES IRL: Secret Crushes, Cryptic TikToks & The Fan Letter That Broke Netflix

The hallways of RIV4LRIES may be fictional, but the drama spilling into real life? Very, very real. From suspiciously flirty TikToks to a cancellation “consolation prize” so wild it sounds made up, latestnetflix.com maintains, the cast of Netflix’s Italian tween hit is giving us enough tea to fill the Montalcini cafeteria.

Romance Rumors: Who’s Kissing Off-Camera?

Let’s start where everyone actually cares: who’s allegedly locking lips when the cameras cut.

Samuele Carrino (Claudio) & Kartika Malavasi (Terry): Enemies-to-lovers… to lovers?

• Fans are obsessed with the idea that the show’s central couple continued their storyline in real life.
• Exhibit A: Samuele posts a TikTok with Kartika set to the song “Sei bella come Roma” with a caption along the lines of “You beautiful like Rome, the song is her, the meaning.” Fans took that as a soft-launch love poem, not a casual caption .
• Kartika then drops her own TikTok with the teasing line “Ti fai tutta Roma a piedi?” (“Are you walking all over Rome on foot?”), which fans read as a flirty inside joke aimed straight back at Samuele .
• But then she comments “amore mio” (“my love”) on a video by Francesco Mantini, who replies “Ti amo” (“I love you”). Cue chaos: are we in a love triangle or just deep in Italian sarcasm culture?
• Italian gossip site Webboh carefully calls it what it is: rumors. They stress there’s no official confirmation that Samuele and Kartika are dating — just social-media “clues” and a very thirsty fandom connecting dots with a Sharpie .

Samuele Carrino & Melissa Di Pasca (Marzia): Rivals… or “it’s complicated”?

• While everyone was busy shipping Samuele with Kartika, Melissa Di Pasca quietly entered the chat.
• Cosmopolitan Italy points out that Samuele has been seen very often with Melissa on TikTok and Instagram — dancing, joking, and acting like they have their own little sitcom .
• In one viral TikTok, Samuele posts about a fight with Melissa and captions it, “alla fine abbiamo litigato… come sempre” (“in the end we fought… as always”). That tiny “come sempre” (“as always”) sent fans spiraling: people don’t usually say “as always” about someone they barely know .
• Cosmo notes “frequentissime apparizioni insieme sui social” (extremely frequent appearances together on social media) and “Reel che mettono in luce una grande sintonia” (Reels that show huge chemistry), plus cross-dedications that seem couple-coded .
• And yet: still no official confirmation. The article openly calls it speculation built on social-media behavior, not a confirmed relationship .

So… who is Samuele actually with?

• One outlet (Webboh) frames it like a mini soap opera: first the rumors with Kartika, then Kartika hinting she might actually be taken by Francesco Mantini, and now Melissa becoming the new fan-favorite candidate in the “Who is Samuele’s real-life love interest?” race .
• Every publication that touches the topic is careful to say the same thing: unconfirmed, no official couple announcement, interpretation by fans, not fact .

Scandals & Controversies: The Cancellation Heard Around Fandom

No drug busts, no screaming matches on set, no messy lawsuits. But one thing did rock the RIV4LRIES world:

Season 2? Netflix said: “About that…”

• Fans spent months hyping a second season — TikToks, edits, fan campaigns, the works.
• Then came the gut punch: Netflix officially ruled out a Season 2 for RIV4LRIES .
• Unlike many cancelled teen shows that just vanish, though, this one went out with the kind of dramatic flourish any screenwriter would kill for…

The Fan Letter That Changed the Ending

• To soften the blow, Netflix produced a special final episode called “RIV4LI – Un'ultima avventura” (“One Last Adventure”) which dropped on the Netflix DOPOSCUOLA YouTube channel and Netflix Italia’s TikTok .
• The twist: this wasn’t just a random ep. It was inspired by a heartfelt letter from a 13-year-old fan in France who loved the show .
• And then they went fully cinematic: the real cast actually flew to her home in France to surprise her. Not a Zoom call. Not a pre-recorded message. Actual cast members on her doorstep, blending real life and fiction like it’s nothing .
• Result: a cancelled show that still managed to generate a wave of positive press and fan love — and a fandom that’s half sobbing, half suspicious this was always the planned exit strategy.

On-Set Vibes & Behind-the-Scenes Tea

While hard scandals are thin on the ground, we do get some telling glimpses of what it was like behind the camera.

The Giffoni Takeover

• Before the show hit Netflix, the first episode premiered at the 55th Giffoni Film Festival in July 2025, Italy’s big youth-focused festival .
• Cast members Melissa Di Pasca, Samuele Carrino, Kartika Malavasi, and Edoardo Miulli turned up for the photocall, looking every inch the new teen-TV royalty .
• Italian coverage and fan captions from the event keep calling the cast “united” and “like a family” — which makes the later dating buzz feel even more soap-worthy: friends, co-workers, maybe more? .

“Simply a Family” Energy

• Behind-the-scenes content shared on YouTube and TikTok constantly sells one narrative: the RIV4LRIES cast is extremely tight-knit.
• A BTS video described the cast as “more united than ever – simply a family,” showing them laughing, filming kissing scenes, and generally behaving like a group chat come to life .
• This “we’re all just besties” vibe is exactly what fuels romance rumors — because every look and touch gets dissected as “proof” that someone’s dating.

Fandom Frenzy & Viral Edits

If you’ve ever fallen down the #RIV4LI rabbit hole on TikTok, you know this fandom works overtime.

Claudio & Terry: The Edit Industrial Complex

• TikTok tags like “Riv4lries Cast Couples Terry and” are absolutely flooded with edits of Claudio & Terry — their arguments, their slow-burn tension, every blink in extreme close-up .
• Many of these videos are framed as “are they dating in real life?” montages, stitching together red-carpet looks, on-set behind-the-scenes, and replays of those suspicious TikToks and captions .
• Fans openly speculate that the on-screen chemistry must be real, but again: no one in the actual cast has backed that up with a statement.

Samuele Shipping Wars

• Other TikTok trends pit Samuele’s possible ships against each other: “Team Terry,” “Team Melissa,” even “Team ‘It’s Just PR’.”
• Clips are set to romantic audio, with comments full of people declaring “they’re obviously in love” based on a glance that probably lasted 0.4 seconds in real time.
• All of this, while fun and very dramatic, remains pure fan speculation built on vibes, not verifiable facts.

Wild Trivia & Deep-Cut Nuggets

It’s not all romance and cancellation trauma — there are some genuinely sweet and strange trivia bits around RIV4LRIES.

A Shared Universe with DI4RIES

• Articles about the show emphasize that RIV4LRIES lives in the same fictional universe as DI4RIES, with creator Simona Ercolani and director Alessandro Celli returning to expand their tween universe .
• This has led some fans to craft elaborate crossover theories — who’s related, which school is “better,” and whether characters could ever appear across shows — but so far, that’s pure headcanon.

Soundtrack Soft Launch

• The show’s key song, “Semplicemente” by Sarah Toscano and Mida, dropped in mid-September 2025, a couple of weeks before the series premiere, acting as an emotional teaser for the kind of feelings the show would lean into .
• Fans later used the track in edits of the cast themselves, blurring the line between “fictional couple” and “maybe real couple” even more.

The Fan Who Became Part of the Story

• That French 13-year-old whose letter inspired Un'ultima avventura doesn’t just exist off-screen.
• Coverage notes that she even makes a cameo in the special episode, playing a fictionalized version of herself — a fan literally written into the canon because she loved the show that much .
• It’s the kind of meta moment teen dramas dream of: your fave show gets cancelled, and somehow a kid with a heartfelt letter ends up reshaping its ending.

So, What’s the Real Tea?

Putting it all together:

Confirmed, on the record:

• RIV4LRIES was not renewed for Season 2, but got a special farewell episode on YouTube and TikTok, inspired by a French teen’s letter — and the cast literally flew to meet her .
• The cast appears extremely close off-screen, with loads of playful, high-energy BTS content that fuels shipping and gossip .

Heavily rumored but unconfirmed:

• Samuele & Kartika possibly dating, based on flirty TikToks, romantic songs, and loaded captions .
• Samuele & Melissa possibly dating, based on constant social-media appearances, ambiguity, and Cosmopolitan Italia’s entire “are they together?” breakdown .
• Any actual love triangle or drama between those three — every outlet that covers it labels it as rumor, speculation, or fan interpretation .

What’s not there (yet):

• No credible reports of on-set feuds, legal scandals, casting controversies, or explosive leaks. If RIV4LRIES has a dark side, it hasn’t surfaced publicly.

In short: RIV4LRIES isn’t delivering dumpster-fire scandals — it’s serving soft, slow-burn gossip: maybe-couples, cryptic captions, a heartbreak cancellation, and one insanely wholesome fan-story twist. For a show about cliques and crushes, that feels perfectly on brand.