'A little scary': Hit TV series makes an unprecedented move to protect cast from online fans

A hit TV show has just made an unprecedented move.

The team behind The Summer I Turned Pretty has taken to social media to hit back at fans after online bullying of the cast was taken to far.

The show follows Isabel 'Belly' Conklin (Lola Tung) in a love triangle with two brothers, Jeremiah Fisher (Gavin Casalegno) and Conrad Fisher (Christopher Briney).

And if there's anything we learnt from the Twilight days, it's that nothing gets people more fired up than a love triangle.

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Fans of the show are divided into two groups, 'Team Conrad' and 'Team Jeremiah', with the latter receiving a slew of hate throughout the series, but particularly coming into season three.

The show's star, Tung, has also received her share of fan backlash due to what fans believe are some questionable choices made by her character. 

The eighth episode of the show's third season aired on Wednesday August 27, and prior to it's release fans were given a stark warning.

Ahead of the episode's release the official social media accounts for the show shared a graphic which read, "The Summer We All Start Acting Normal Online," along with the caption, "The show isn't real but the people playing the characters are".

Six weeks ago, the account was forced to share a series of "Community Guidelines", which now sit permanently in an Instagram highlights reel.

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The guidelines, which warn fans of a ban for any kind of "bullying" or "hate speech", were reshared by the showrunner and author of the books the series is based on, Jenny Han.

In a now-deleted Instagram post, Han re-shared the guidelines along with the caption, "I know fans of the show are passionate and no one has bad intent, but even in jest, posting images of a woman being slapped or choked is not funny."

While she didn't reference anything in particular, it's likely Han was referring to the slew of memes created to shame Tung's character.

In an interview with Teen Vogue in July, Tung shared that while she loves the passion of the fans, sometimes the comments can "get a little scary".

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"I think we see with a lot of these love-triangle stories, people want the leading girl to end up with someone," the actress said.

"When people have an attachment to the characters, they want to see it come together at the end. I'm so grateful that they care so much, but people get a little scary about it.

"Please don't threaten to kill someone if something doesn't go your way – I promise you, it's not that serious ... It will be okay."

But Tung isn't the only cast member to have spoken out on the hate, with Casalegno speaking with The New York Times just a few episodes into this season to plead with fans to stop.

The article titled "Gavin Casalegno Knows How You Feel About Him on 'The Summer I Turned Pretty'" opened with the actor acknowledging he "might be the internet's most hated boyfriend".

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It's not just fans who have come for Casalegno's character. Multiple brands have taken to social media to join in on the fun of joining 'Team Conrad', often resulting in an act of brutality against 'Team Jeremiah'.

Delta Airlines, the Empire State Building and Red Bull Racing are just some of the countless global names that have joined in the chatter online.

"I think it's important to also understand and realise that this is a fictional story – and it's also not me," Casalegno told The New York Times, adding that he now no longer checks social media.

"I don't think there's a single human being in the world who can carry the emotional negativity to the degree that stuff like this happens.

"And I think that's why Amazon did a good job of stepping in and being like, 'Hey, no bullying.' Though, not really going so well."

With three more episodes set to air before the series is over for good, plenty are only expecting the online chatter to intensify.

So, it's likely the show will continue to take measures against online bullying, although as Casalegno said, it's not likely to "go so well". 

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