Joey King, Joel Courtney and more stars of the Netflix romantic comedy also reveal how the new cast members shake up the film.

After The Kissing Booth became the most rewatched Netflix original movie of 2018, stars Joey King (The Act), Jacob Elordi (Euphoria) and Joel Courtney (Super 8) are back for a sequel. The cast opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about how the film builds on the success of the first, while still staying true to the youthful spirit of the original.

"This sequel, if I may say so myself, I think is better than the first movie," said King, who plays Elle and is also an executive producer of the film. "We wanted to give fans something to remember, something that is even bigger and better than the movie that they fell in love with initially, something that exceeded all expectations and still remained true to the absolute fun, loving, ridiculously silly nature of the first movie. And I just think that, not to toot our own horn, but I kind of think that we might have hit it out of the park or whatever."

The sequel sees Noah, played by Elordi, head off to college at Harvard, far away from girlfriend Elle, who is about to start her senior year of high school in Los Angeles. As the pair try to maintain their bicoastal relationship, two new characters, Marco and Chloe, played by Taylor Zakhar Perez and Maisie Richardson-Sellers, respectively, put their future together in jeopardy.

"Noah's away to college and now it's a long distance relationship, so kind of tough for Elle, and Marco's the new kid at school who kind of offers different things for her," said Perez. "He's artistic. He dances. He plays the guitar. He sings. It's a kind of whole different kind of guy than she's used to. And so when they finally have this little meet-cute and they start this relationship, this friendship, I think she starts questioning herself. Does she love Noah? Does she like Marco? What's her future going to be?"

"She instantly becomes best friends with Noah and she is very elevated," Richardson-Sellers said of her character, Harvard student Chloe. "She's this very intelligent, very dynamic and sort of confident, can control any room that she's in [type of] person who Elle gets a little bit jealous of when she sort of sees that this close friendship has formed so far away from her. You know, long distance is so hard and I think that's what this film does really well is it sort of exposes the stresses that long distance can put through both of our characters. And it also exposes the assumptions that can be made as a result, and what happens when there's not great communication among partners. So, it was super fun to come in and stir the pot up a bit."

Since the film explores the complexities of a long distance relationship, the cast also shared what they think are the keys to maintaining long distance love.

"Communication," said Courtney. "Having been there and done that in a long distance relationship, communication is key."

"He's a hundred percent right," added King. "Communication, being honest with each other. Trying to make that person feel like their role in your life is as special as possible, especially if you really care about them."

Watch more in the video above. The Kissing Booth 2 premieres on Netflix on July 24.