Romance readers, Anna Todd just dropped The Last Sunrise, and with the ink barely dry, the film adaptation is already underway. Todd, best known for her After series and a decade of genre-defining love stories, released her newest novel on May 6, 2025, and wasted no time setting the internet on fire with another announcement.
In an Instagram post from Los Angeles, the author revealed that the “lovely and insanely talented” Maia Reficco will play Oriah Pera in the upcoming movie.
Yes, that’s right. We’re in our The Last Sunrise era, and it’s only just begun.
The new novel follows 22-year-old Oriah, who escapes her overprotective life and chronic health struggles for a sun-drenched summer in Majorca. There, she meets Julian (a frustratingly charming local), and her life begins to shift in ways she had never imagined. But this isn’t just fiction for Todd.
In an exclusive Us Weekly interview from 2024, she shared that the novel was inspired by her real-life experience parenting her son, who has tuberous sclerosis. “It was really therapeutic and really hard at times [to write],” Todd said. That intimacy and truth infuse The Last Sunrise with a sense of urgency and tenderness that longtime fans (and newcomers) are already responding to.
Maia Reficco steps in as Oriah
Maia Reficco, who’s fresh off genre-hopping roles in Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin and Netflix’s Do Revenge, will star as Oriah in the film adaptation.
“[She] will be our Oriah,” Todd posted on Instagram. The post, shared on release day, also teased that production kicks off this summer.
Fan reactions came in fast across TikTok and Instagram. A user exclaimed, “Imagine being this accurate. This isn’t casting. This is spiritual alignment,” while another textually screamed, “THE BOOK JUST RELEASED AND ITS GETTING AN ADAPTION??? ANNA TODD FANS STAYYYYY WINNING.”
And yes, Maia will be appearing at The Ripped Bodice book signing in L.A. (a beloved indie romance bookstore) for what fans are already calling THE event of the season.
The Last Sunrise may be Anna Todd’s most personal story yet
In many ways, The Last Sunrise marks a bold new chapter for Anna Todd—not just as a writer but as a producer. “I’m a full producer on the film,” she told Us Weekly. “I can’t say which studio, but we’re in full motion for that.”
While she joked that optioning the film before writing the book was risky (“As an author, I was like, ‘Wait a second’”), the result is a deeply emotional story with cinematic bones already in place.
The novel doesn’t shy away from the complexities of chronic illness, protective family, and what it means to come of age in a body that doesn’t always cooperate. It’s sexy, vulnerable, and brimming with heart.
If After was Anna’s love letter to first love, then The Last Sunrise is her quiet declaration of what it means to love and understand oneself, as well as the people that you love.
