Too much here to quote the entire article. But here’s a teaser:

Joel Courtney thinks “The Kissing Booth 2” is better than “The Kissing Booth.”

“I just think that we really came into our characters in more of a powerful way in the second film, because we knew the characters, we already had history with these characters,” said the actor, who plays Lee Flynn in Netflix’s rom-com sequel, which dropped on Friday.

“We had history with each other. I think that it really allowed for more depth of character and character building. And then on set, there was a comfortability.”

Once he found out there would be a second film, Courtney was excited to return to the characters that drove the original — Netflix’s most-rewatched movie of 2018 — and built a solid fan base.

“There were rumors [of a sequel],” he said. “There were basically fan petitions happening at that time and I kept thinking, ‘It would be nice, but I don’t want to build my hopes too high,’ and then we got the green light and I was just ecstatic. I was so excited to get to come back to these characters that I fell in love with.”

Within six months after the first film was released, the cast’s social media accounts exploded. Fans were begging for a second film.

“They fell in love with these characters,” said Courtney, 24. “I’ve been working for 10 years, I’ve worked on a lot of projects, but very few reached the audience like I think ‘The Kissing Booth’ did. And it was a really special occasion. I knew it as soon as social media started showing us.”

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