Escape Into Books
Your home for book news, reviews, and bookish fun. Follow along on Facebook.
Emily Henry is preparing fans to fall in love with Poppy and Alex all over again — this time with extra scenes, new cities and fresh banter written just for the screen.
The bestselling romance author popped up on Netflix’s official Instagram on Nov. 25 to tease what’s changing in the People We Meet on Vacation film, ahead of its global Netflix release on Jan. 9, 2026. The movie stars Emily Bader as travel writer Poppy Wright and Tom Blyth as buttoned-up teacher Alex Nilsen, and marks Henry’s first novel to actually reach production in Hollywood’s current romance-adaptation boom.[source]
From Palm Springs to Barcelona — and New Dialog for Fans to “Eat Up”
Henry told Netflix that one of the biggest shifts is geographic: major stretches of the story have been moved from Palm Springs to Barcelona. “There are a couple of differences between the book and the movie that I’m really excited for the readers to see,” she said, calling out the “fun new set dressing” of the European setting.
More importantly for readers, Henry teased added scenes that compress or reimagine moments from the novel. Those changes mean “new dialog between Poppy and Alex, new moments, new jokes, new beats of affection,” she said — bonus material she believes readers “are gonna just like eat that up.”[source]
Early responses suggest she’s right. Fans flooded the Instagram comments with versions of “I don’t think I have ever been more seated,” and, “If she is saying positive things as the author, I’m 1000% sure it’s going to be amazing!!”
Emily Henry’s Romance Universe Heads to Screen
People We Meet on Vacation — which has sold around 2 million copies in the U.S. alone[source] — follows best friends Poppy and Alex as their once-a-year vacation tradition implodes, then forces a slow-burn reckoning on one last trip. The Netflix film, directed by Brett Haley, is the first of Henry’s five novels to go in front of cameras, but it won’t be the last.
Adaptations of Beach Read, Book Lovers, Happy Place and Funny Story are all in development, with studios like Sony’s 3000 Pictures and Temple Hill — veterans of YA and romance hits — attached across various projects.[source] Screenwriter and novelist Yulin Kuang has become a key creative bridge between page and screen, particularly on Beach Read, as Hollywood chases BookTok-fueled romance successes in the vein of The Idea of You.[source]
Henry’s movie joins a growing slate of romance projects at Netflix, from Colleen Hoover adaptations to upcoming originals. The streamer also recently snapped up Katherine Center’s holiday rom-com The Bodyguard, part of a broader trend of turning buzzy contemporary romances into glossy comfort watches.[internal]
Kuang’s fingerprints are on this film too: she drafted the initial People We Meet on Vacation script before moving across to Beach Read for 20th Century Studios. The first trailer had already bought Henry a good deal of goodwill, with viewers crediting her for helping revive the rom-com, even as some readers worried about how much Netflix would change along the way.
Why Readers Are Watching This One Closely
For many romance fans, Henry’s books are defined by their crackling dialog and slow-build emotional payoffs — precisely the elements that can be hardest to translate to film. Her on-camera enthusiasm, and the promise of more Poppy-and-Alex material rather than less, is likely to reassure readers wary of Hollywood streamlining their favorites.
It also positions People We Meet on Vacation as a bellwether for what comes next in the romance-to-screen wave, much like how Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us became a flashpoint for adaptation debates.[internal] If Henry’s first outing sticks the landing, it could set the tone — and the bar — for an entire universe of cozy, emotionally sharp love stories heading for our screens.
People We Meet on Vacation hits Netflix worldwide on Jan. 9, 2026.
