John Green’s message is alive and well in the Looking for Alaska teaser

Screen adaptations of popular books can often change the story in ways that readers find disappointing. Thankfully, that doesn’t appear to be the case with Hulu’s adaptation of John Green’s Looking for Alaska.

When books are adapted for the big or small screen, there’s always some understandable hesitation from readers. With new creators toying with our favorite stories, things can go wrong, and sometimes the author’s message can be lost entirely. Thankfully, that doesn’t appear to be what’s happening with Hulu’s adaptation of John Green’s Looking for Alaska. 

We’ve been waiting for the 2005 novel to be brought to life for a while now, and it looks like Hulu won’t be disappointing us with its take on Green’s story and characters. In the first teaser for the series, we get a look at Miles and Alaska, along with their friends from boarding school, Chip “the Colonel” Martin and Takumi Hikohito.

Watch the first trailer for Hulu’s Looking for Alaska here: 

We also get quite a few one-liners throughout the trailer, many of which are callbacks to the original work. Green’s book follows the group of teenagers as they undergo the everyday monotony of boarding school and question whether there’s a greater meaning to life than what they’ve experienced thus far.

The opening, where Alaska says, “Teenagers think they’re invincible,” showcases her character perfectly, promising a spot-on representation of her story to come. Readers of the book will also recognize this as foreshadowing of Alaska’s narrative and all the questions stem from it.

Chip’s insistence that “mischief always wins a war” also promises a solid characterization of the Colonel, along with perhaps a longer storyline than the one Green gave us. Takumi’s quote also suggests that we’ll be seeing more of these two throughout the Hulu series than we do in the novel, and that’s one change we’d welcome with open arms.

And, of course, Green fans will be excited upon realizing that one of Looking for Alaska‘s most iconic quote closes out the teaser: “I go to seek a Great Perhaps.” This one comes from Miles, and it plays off his obsession with famous last words, as well as his relationship with Alaska. If we had to summarize Green’s story in just a few words, these would probably be them.

Overall, it looks like Hulu is staying true to the world Green created, while also building on some of the side characters and toning down the “male gaze” through which the book sometimes portrays Alaska. If those are the main changes we’re looking at, we’d say that this mini-series is going to be as compelling as the book — and that’s high praise indeed.

What are your favorite moments from Hulu’s Looking for Alaska teaser? Let us know in the comments below.