The 'Off Campus' Timeline, Explained
As an ensemble show with multiple love stories within one book series, Off Campus (2026) is another romance anthology that understandably switches up timelines from the book. Set in a fictional college world that surrounds a group of close friends who also happen to be hockey players, the series wouldn't stick the landing as gorgeously just by adapting one book, then moving on from those characters afterward.
As showrunner Louisa Levy confirmed on iHeartRadioCA, "Hannah and Garrett aren't going anywhere. They're not just riding off into the sunset. We're keeping them in our show. They're such an important part of our community and the world of the show." Keeping this detail in mind, the show's changes to the book's timeline, wherein a good portion of the stories take place too close together, make complete sense. Ideally, we'd get four seasons, and maybe even a fifth—or a movie—for some of the extra content, but what we're already seeing in Season 1 enhances the pacing, and the extended timeline helps flesh out the characters more.
But if you're wondering where everything falls, we've got you covered with a breakdown now that all eight episodes are streaming on Prime Video.
How Does The 'Off Campus' Timeline Change From The Book Series?
In an interview with ProducerLiz of Late Night Scrolling, Levy confirms that each season will take place during one semester as a means to buy more time and stretch out character arcs in order to keep them orbiting around each other. The decision makes perfect sense when we factor in the detail that books three and four, The Score and The Goal, respectively, take place at the same time, though they change character points of view.
In the show, Jalen Thomas Brooks' John Tucker is now the youngest player of the core four, as a sophomore during Season 1, while Stephan Kalyn's Dean Di Laurentis is the oldest as a senior. In addition, Belmont Cameli's Garrett Graham and Antonio Cipriano's John Logan are both juniors. As far as the semester goes, changing leaves and an episode dedicated to Thanksgiving leave us squared in the fall, which typically ends right before the holidays for break.
While we don't see this on the show—nor do we get Garrett's birthday, a notable book scene, which is supposed to be on New Year's Day—there's still a way to thrust us into the spring semester for Season 2 while potentially adapting The Mistake.
How Does The 'Off Campus' Timeline Impact Later Seasons?
The timeline shift also begs the question of whether the sophomore season will follow its exact book order or if it'll divert to the third with extensive focus on the earlier moments from the second book to prolong some of the buildup. An advantage of Off Campus is that the show is so well-balanced in its ensemble cast that the changes from the book order shouldn't be too upsetting to die-hard fans because it's clear that Louisa Levy understands the importance of the character arcs. For instance, to flesh out Logan and Grace's story from The Mistake, we could get a flashback to their first time during the second season's spring semester.
WARNING: The following section contains spoilers related to the books.
But ultimately, the biggest question here is how does this current timeline impact Beau Maxwell's death, which takes place in The Score? If Dean is a senior in Season 1, that means he should be on his way toward graduating by the end of Season 2, and since he and Beau are the same age, will the car crash happen at the end of Season 2? Aging Dean up means that, technically, he should no longer be on campus in Season 3 if the show adapts his and Allie Hayes' book in their proper order. However, if Beau's death occurs at some point in Season 2, then it could make sense for grief to push Dean into such a horrific state where he has to repeat his last semester.
Again, because Dean's and Tucker's books take place at the same time, and each season will follow a semester, it could work out organically to draw out the semesters and give the characters proper time to grieve. One of the reasons the Off Campus adaptation is so nuanced and refreshing is because of how it's gracefully handling tough topics. Grief isn't something that goes away with a few episodes, and the school setting doesn't exactly leave room for a time jump. Simultaneously, Beau's role in the show already feels more substantial, making it easy for us to get attached to him, and as the audience, we also need proper time to grieve alongside the characters.
That said, though each season will be a single semester, there are a number of thoughtful ways the showrunners could explore the books by still keeping the ensemble characters front and center while also highlighting the primary love story of the season. This way, it gets to shine as a story about romance and found families, altogether, and that detail allows it to stand out gorgeously.
