Pack your bags — Netflix just dropped the official trailer for People We Meet on Vacation, and it’s already giving swoon-worthy, sun-drenched chaos. The highly anticipated adaptation of Emily Henry’s bestselling novel arrives in just over a month, and fans are finally getting a first look at Poppy (Emily Bader) and Alex (Tom Blyth) navigating the world’s most emotionally confusing “just friends” vacation.
The movie follows the longtime best friends as they head out on their annual summer getaway, only this time, things feel … different. The trailer, released on December 2, teases plenty of flirty banter and complicated feelings. Despite living wildly different lives when they’re not sipping cocktails on the beach, Poppy and Alex can’t seem to shake the question: are they actually meant to be more than friends.
In one scene in the trailer, an emotional Poppy leans in for a kiss as Alex comforts her, and taken aback by her advances, he asks: “What am I to you?” She looks confused as she says: “You’re my friend. My best friend.” Will it finally be time to break the friendship?
Netflix is no stranger to buzzy book adaptations, but this one is in a league of its own. Emily’s novel has sold more than 2 million copies and spent 69 weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list — thanks in huge part to BookTok. Across all her titles, Emily has sold over 8 million books in the U.S. with four more adaptations currently in the works, including Book Lovers which already has writer Sarah Hayward attached.
Helping fuel the excitement is the stacked cast — as Emily and Tom have proved their leading-role chops in My Lady Jane and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and they’re joined by Jameela Jamil, Molly Shannon, Lucien Laviscount, Lukas Gage, Sarah Catherine Hook, Miles Heizer, Tommy Do, Alice Lee and Alan Ruck.
“This is a movie that doesn’t just tell a love story,” Haley told Tudum. “It makes you feel like you’ve gone on vacation right alongside Poppy and Alex.”
Emily Henry herself has given the film her stamp of approval — which, for fans, is basically the golden ticket.
“I’ve been kind of an anxious wreck about who would play these characters,” she told Tudum, but said she was “confident” viewers would “completely fall in love” with the on-screen versions. Seeing Bader and Blyth together sealed the deal: “I watched (Emily and Tom’s) chemistry read four times in 12 hours, and I loved it more every single time… I got so emotional by the end.”
People We Meet on Vacation premieres on Netflix on January 9, 2026.
