Madelaine Petsch and The Summer I Turned Pretty Star Team Up to Bring a Viral Wattpad Hit to Life
Riverdale’s Madelaine Petsch and The Summer I Turned Pretty star Gavin Casalegno will headline Chasing Red, adapting Isabelle Ronin’s viral Wattpad phenomenon that racked up 261 million reads and ranks as the second-most read English webnovel.
Wattpad powerhouse Chasing Red is finally getting the movie treatment, with Riverdale alum Madelaine Petsch and The Summer I Turned Pretty breakout Gavin Casalegno set as the leads. If you were on Wattpad during its heyday, you definitely saw this one float across your feed: Isabelle Ronin's YA romance racked up 261 million reads and sits as the platform's second-most read English webnovel. Now it is officially jumping from swipe-to-read to lights-camera-action.
The team at a glance
- Leads: Madelaine Petsch and Gavin Casalegno
- Source material: Isabelle Ronin's viral Wattpad novel Chasing Red (261 million reads; second-most read English webnovel on the platform)
- Director: Mackenzie Munro
- Screenwriter: Lauren Schacher
- Producers: Greg Silverman and Grant Torre (Stampede Ventures); David Madden and Jason Goldberg (Webtoon Productions)
- Roles per THR: Petsch is Veronica Strafford, the straight-A, no-nonsense college student; Casalegno is Caleb Lockhart, the confident campus heartthrob who gets unexpectedly fixated on her
So what is Chasing Red actually about?
Veronica Strafford is laser-focused on school and trying to outrun a past she'd rather not unpack. Then life yanks the rug: she suddenly has nowhere to live. Caleb Lockhart, very popular and very sure of himself, offers her a room. What starts as a simple favor turns into a slow-burn situation with a lot of sparks and even more complications. As the two get closer, buried secrets and old wounds start crowding the room, and the whole thing slides from 'temporary roommate' to 'messy, addictive romance' in record time.
Who is playing who (and where you've seen them)
Madelaine Petsch is Veronica. She played Cheryl Blossom on Riverdale, produced and starred in the Amazon rom-com Maintenance Required opposite Jacob Scipio, turned up in Lionsgate's reboot of The Strangers horror trilogy, and most recently wrapped a project titled Pretty Babies.
Gavin Casalegno is Caleb. He is fresh off the runaway success of The Summer I Turned Pretty, where he plays fan favorite Jeremiah Fisher. Next up, he is in The Devil's Mouth alongside Kathryn Newton and Lana Condor.
Behind the camera
Mackenzie Munro is directing from a script by Lauren Schacher. On the producing side, Stampede Ventures heads Greg Silverman and Grant Torre are teaming with David Madden and Jason Goldberg at Webtoon Productions. Given the story's online roots, that lineup makes a lot of sense and should have a pretty good read on what fans actually want to see.
Bottom line: this is a straight-up, slow-burn YA romance with two TV-native leads who know how to play longing looks and loaded silence. If the movie leans into the push-pull that made the book a juggernaut, the Wattpad faithful will show up in force.