ET Online: ‘The Kissing Booth 3’: Joel Courtney on Lee’s Ending, Possible 4th Film (Exclusive)

Spoilers ahead! Joel Courtney chats with ET’s Matt Cohen about the end of the ‘The Kissing Booth’ franchise, which jumps ahead six years to reveal where the beloved characters end up after college. Joel reacts to his character, Lee, winding up with his high school sweetheart Rachel, and weighs in on whether he thinks Elle (Joey King) and Noah (Jacob Elordi) really ride off into the sunset together. Plus, he shares a message to fans about the end of this era, and offers up his ideas for a potential sequel down the line. ‘The Kissing Booth 3’ is now streaming on Netflix.

Joel Courtney
Truth or Dare

The cast of Netflix's "The Kissing Booth" play a wild game of Truth or Dare. Can Joel Courtney make up a country song on the spot? What is Joey King's biggest pet peeve? What animal most resembles Joel?

Joel Courtney
ExclusiveJoey King and Joel Courtney Say Goodbye to ‘The Kissing Booth’ Movies: ‘It’s Happy’ and ‘It’s Sad’

It’s officially over! Joey King and Joel Courtney are finally saying goodbye to The Kissing Booth franchise.

“It’s emotional. It’s happy. It’s sad,” Joey, 22, tells J-14 exclusively while promoting The Kissing Booth 3. “I’ve had an incredible journey with these films. I’ve gone through so much while making them. It’s a little surreal that it’s over, and it does bring up a lot of emotions.”

The Ramona and Beezus alum continues, “When we wrapped, it was so sad. But also, we all had so much fun. I remember that, that last day it was kind of crazy … sitting there and being like, ‘All right, this is the last scene as Elle.'”

Joel, for his part, agrees with his costar and real-life best friend.

“It’s been tough saying goodbye to Lee. Such a huge part of my life for the last five years has been The Kissing Booth. I thought I was saying goodbye to him in 2018 when we were done filming. Then, we got trilogy,” the actor shares. “Now, saying goodbye again … this is for real, this is goodbye. I have such a bittersweet idea about it because it’s just been one of the greatest blessings in my career.”

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When it came to actually stepping off set on the final day of filming, Joey and Joel didn’t exactly do anything to put the fan-favorite characters to rest, but The Act star did take home “some” of Elle’s clothes.

“My favorite pair of shorts of all time are Elle’s shorts. I’ve never had a pair of shorts fit me better. So, those are great,” Joey says, noting that she “sat with the entire cast and crew” before eating “an entire box of shortbread Walkers cookies.”

The final film ends with a flash-forward six years into the future, showing viewers that Elle and Lee’s lives are like following the events of all three films. While bidding farewell to the characters, both Netflix stars said they were surprised by Elle and Lee’s endings.

“I think it’s right. I think it’s what Lee has in his life. That relationship with Rachel (Meganne Young) is such a huge deal for him,” Joel gushes. “That’s the right ending. I think that relationship comes to fruition. It’s the hopeless romantics’ perfect ending.”

As for Joey, the actress said she was “proud” of Elle’s final decision but happy the ending left her future “up for a lot of interpretation.”

“That’s the best part about the ending, is that I don’t know,” she explains. “I just hope that wherever she is, she’s happy and that her and Lee are still being BFFs, which I know they are.”

Joel Courtney