TSITP's Tanner Zagarino Adds Fuel To The Redbird & Jeremiah Shipping Theory
Jere's happily ever after could be right next to him in his frat.
Jenny Han wanted to make the series finale of The Summer I Turned Pretty “better” than her books. So far, there have been differences between the novels and the Prime Video show — like adding the whole debutante storyline in Season 1 — but for the most part, the story has stayed the same, right down to Jeremiah’s cheating and Belly and Conrad’s peach scene in the final season. However, with teases that Jeremiah’s ending will change, some fans are looking at his new college buddy Redbird with speculation — and actor Tanner Zagarino has seen the theories.
Before Season 3 premiered on July 16, Gavin Casalegno mentioned that Jere’s “final scenes were kind of a nice, happy button.” Could that mean the character is finding love with someone new? After a telling exchange early in Season 3, a growing theory is that Jeremiah may explore a romance with Redbird. “I think it’s very interesting,” Zagarino tells Elite Daily of the idea.
In Season 1 of the Prime series, it’s revealed that Jeremiah is bisexual, a change from the books. Jere’s sexuality hasn’t really been brought up again since he and Belly got together in Season 2, but fans haven’t forgotten this important detail. In Season 3, Episode 2, Jeremiah’s fraternity brother, Redbird, mentions an ex-boyfriend while listening to Jeremiah talk about cheating on Belly. Fans on TikTok think this mention of Redbird’s sexuality could be an Easter egg that supports the idea that Jeremiah and Redbird are going to end up together.
“I am convinced that they are teeing up Redbird as a love interest for Jeremiah,” @katieleah93 wrote, while @jessica.christianna believes there has to be a reason Han made Jeremiah bisexual in the TV series. “Jenny Han is so calculated, that didn’t happen by accident and was a major plot line that we breezed past,” she wrote. “I’m 100% sure that Redbird and Jeremiah are going to end up together.”
While the 26-year-old actor has to be tightlipped about Season 3 — “I can't say anything” — Zagarino admits that TikTok is “wild” with TSITP ideas. “They have a theory for everything,” he says. “They see a stray hair in a different direction, and they go, ‘That's a sign.’ And they make a sign out of it. But it's all fun.”
Redbird Is Coming Back In Episode 7
Since Episode 2, Redbird has gone MIA from The Summer I Turned Pretty, but Zagarino says he’s not done gracing our TV screens. “I come back in Episode 7 through the rest of the season, so 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11,” he says. It makes sense that Jeremiah’s college BFF would return for his bachelor party and upcoming nuptials to Belly, but bookending the series with Redbird in every episode also could imply that there’s more story to tell between these two.
Han also recently told Entertainment Weekly that there have been Easter eggs in Season 3 that fans have completely missed, like her cameo in Episode 5. So, while some Team Jeremiah fans think he’ll end up with Belly and other TikTokers are convinced it’s Redbird, there could be a third, unknown ending for the younger Fisher brother that no one has caught yet. Fans will just have to wait and see Jeremiah’s fate during the finale episode, premiering on Prime Video on Sept. 17.
