The Correct Order To Watch The After Movies

Do you want to watch the “After” movies but you’re not quite sure where to logistically begin? I may be able to lend a hand with that.

For the uninitiated, the “After” film series is based on author Anna Todd’s book series of the same name — and the backstory here is actually pretty wild. Todd, who once wrote under the username Imaginator1D on the fanfiction site Wattpad, penned “After” as a story about a regular girl who ends up in a torrid, steamy romance with Harry Styles (the Grammy-winning musician who got his start in the boy band One Direction, which Todd’s username is pretty clearly referencing.) Fanfiction making the leap into legitimate literary territory isn’t anything new; “Fifty Shades of Grey” began its life as a work of “Twilight” fanfiction, a fact that I cannot ever possibly unlearn. Knowing that the “After” series is about a very real person, though, might feel a little strange when you sit down to read or watch the stories.

In any case, the titles of the “After” movies aren’t going to do you any favors if you’re trying to figure out the right order in which to consume them. Here’s the correct order, title by title.

The “After” film franchise centers around star-crossed lovers Tessa Young and Hardin Scott — played by Josephine Langford (“Moxie”) and Hero Fiennes Tiffin (“The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare”) — who meet during their first year at an unnamed and obviously fictional college. Tessa has been a well-behaved girl all her life, but when she meets Hardin, he unlocks a more dangerous side of her; she ends up cheating on her high school boyfriend Noah (Dylan Arnold), who she was still dating when she and Harwin first hooked up, and she’s horrified to discover some of his personal struggles. (He’s got some nasty anger issues, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.)

All of that happens in the first movie, 2019’s “After.” The first sequel, “After We Collided,” was released in 2020, so you’ll want to watch that next, followed by the third movie, 2021’s “After We Fell.” The fourth film, “After Ever Happy,” came out in 2022 and chronicles a particularly explosive time in Tessa and Hardin’s relationship — both are dealing with the return of their previously absent fathers as they try to navigate their own bond despite Hardin’s constant drinking and tumultuous rages — and the final film in the franchise (for now), “After Everything,” released in 2023. I say “for now” because there are some other projects in the works, including a prequel about Hardin’s horrible childhood.

Yes, it seems obvious that you should watch a film franchise in the order in which it was released; that feels like a given. With that said, the “After” series doesn’t exactly make it easy for newcomers, because the titles don’t indicate anything about what happens in the movies, nor do they reference the correct order. So what’s the gist of the narrative here?

“After” kicks off while Hardin and Tessa attend college; she ultimately parts ways with Noah after he realizes she’s sleeping with Hardin, but the second film, “After We Collided,” moves the duo out of college and into their professional lives in Seattle, Washington. During that time, Tessa starts working at a publishing house run by Christian Vance (Charlie Weber), where she meets her colleague Trevor (“Riverdale” star Dylan Sprouse) and makes a possible romantic connection with him … but she and Hardin keep falling back together. “After We Fell” puts more obstacles in the couple’s way when Tessa’s estranged father Richard (Atanas Srebrev) comes back into her life and when they learn that Christian Vance, now played by “True Blood” alum Stephen Moyer. “After Ever Happy” finds Tessa and Hardin in a relatively solid place, with both accepting that everything they’ve faced has only strengthened their relationship, but they end up splitting before the current final installment “After Everything.” That movie, however, ends with them together, in case you were concerned.

You might have noticed, in that paragraph, that one actor replaces another as Christian Vance; this happens more or less constantly in the “After” franchise. For example, Tessa’s mother Carol is played by Selma Blair in the first two movies, Mira Sorvino in the following two, and nobody in “After Everything” (she’s only mentioned). That’s another reason to watch these movies in order — besides Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, there’s a lot of re-casting that would probably be very confusing if you didn’t follow the order.

The “After” movies are available on Netflix.