Love anything Jenny Han creates? If that name doesn’t ring a bell, she’s the author behind the iconic To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before books, which then became hit movies she produced. Most recently, the second season of XO, Kitty, a To All The Boys I Loved Before spinoff series, premiered on 16 January this year
XO, Kitty follows the main character, Kitty Song-Covey on her journey to discover more about her Korean heritage and surprise her long-distance boyfriend. She decides to apply for a scholarship to the Korean Independent School of Seoul (K.I.S.S) to follow in the footsteps of her late mother. However, when she gets there, everything is not what she expected it to be. A coming-of-age drama, XO, Kitty is a great show to watch if you want something lighthearted and cosy.
If you have yet to watch XO, Kitty, here are 7 fun facts that will make you want to watch the show even more. There are spoilers ahead though, so do read this at your own risk.
Unlike Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty series or the To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy, XO, Kitty is the only series that isn’t based on a book the author wrote. It’s meant to be a spin-off from To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before since Kitty is Lara Jean’s younger sister. Jenny decided to produce XO, Kitty because she loved the actress Anna Cathcart as Kitty so much. It’s great though, because then everything in XO, Kitty is a surprise, which is similar to her meddling personality in To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.
Compared to the other leads in Jenny Han’s other shows, Kitty is the only protagonist to openly explore her sexuality.
At the end of season 1, Kitty discovers that she is bisexual after acknowledging her growing crush on Yuri who is played by Gia Kim. In season 2, she tries dating girls to avoid getting into any more complicated love triangles with guys. She went on a few dates with Praveena, another student at K.I.S.S, to try to get over her crush on Yuri, who was already in a relationship. Unfortunately, both relationships ended badly for Kitty, but it was still heartwarming to see the show acknowledge her bisexuality.
In season 2, Kitty navigates her crush on Yuri before eventually moving on after a kiss gone wrong. Min Ho, played by Sang Heon Lee, becomes Kitty’s main love interest in season 2 after he helps discover the truth and reunite her family.
Interestingly, Sang Heon Lee and Gia Kim, who plays Yuri, are siblings in real life, despite having different accents. Gia has an American accent while Sang Heon developed a British one. Another interesting fact is that the rest of the cast didn’t know they were related when they first met.
Before XO, Kitty, Choi Min-Yeong was active in the K-drama scene before he got cast as Dae. He’s most known for his roles as Baek Yi-Hyun in Twenty-Five Twenty-One and young Jang Dae-hee in Itaewon Class. XO, Kitty is actually his first American TV production!
On top of his already impressive acting resume, he was also a theatre kid, which explains why his performance in the Winter Showcase was so good. In 2020, he won 1st place in a youth musical performer competition called DIMF Musical Star.
During the Winter Showcase in season 2, we were awed by Eunice’s captivating performance of “OMG” by New Jeans. In an interesting turn of events, her actress Ryu Han-Bi almost debuted as the 7th member of New Jeans! She was a former ADOR trainee and was set to debut in the 4th generation K-pop group but had to withdraw due to health reasons. There were also rumours that she joined Le Sserafim for a short period of time. Even though she’s not an idol in real life, we’re glad she got to live out her idol dreams in the show.
If you were a huge To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before fan, you would’ve probably already met Dae in the third movie. However, if you pay close attention, Dae looks slightly different from how we saw him in XO, Kitty. That’s because the original actor for Dae, Jeon Ho-Young, was already participating in an idol survival show called Boy’s Planet, where he was ranked No. 12 overall. The scheduling conflict may be unfortunate but we truly can’t imagine anyone other than Choi Min-Yeong as Dae.
From L-R: Praveena (Sasha Bhasin), Stella/Esther (Audrey Hyunh), Jin (Joshua Hyunho Lee)
In season 2, we were introduced to 3 new characters that definitely brought the drama and had us sitting on the edge of our seats.
Praveena, who was played by Sasha Bhasin, was Kitty’s first venture into dating girls. She didn’t get much screen time after she ended her fling with Kitty but it is rumoured that she got together with Yuri’s ex-girlfriend after.
Stella/Esther, depicted by Audrey Hyunh, is Kitty’s new roommate. A quiet girl from Ohio who sings in her church, it seems that she won’t be causing trouble, or will she? Stella actually ended up being a mastermind villain this season, blackmailing everyone so she could get revenge on Min Ho’s father who humiliated her at an audition.
Jin, played by Joshua Hyunho Lee, was introduced as the track rival of Q. The latter was portrayed by Anthony Keyvan, and it was revealed that the former bullied Dae and Min Ho in grade school. He gave off a narcissistic vibe when we first met him but he grew on us after owning up to his previous mistakes in front of everyone. Who can resist a good redemption arc?
Be transported back into the wildness of teenage drama and romance with XO, Kitty. Take the time to binge-watch the show this weekend and once you’re done, you can grumble at the slow burn between Kitty and Min Ho with the rest of us.
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