Attention liars: there's a new mean girl in town, and her name is Karen Beasley. Mallory Bechtel — who you may know from 2018's "Hereditary" or 2021's "Know Fear" — plays Millwood High School's queen bee in the HBO Max series "Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin [1]," premiering on July 28. The forthcoming chapter takes place in the town of Millwood, PA, and finds a new generation being tormented by an unknown assailant [2], aka "A."
Sasha Pieterse played the original lovable bully [3] in Freeform's "Pretty Little Liars [4]," but she's ready to pass the baton. "When they posted my first look as Karen, Sasha Pieterse commented and added me. [She] gave [me] words of support, saying, 'It's always so fun to be a mean girl; enjoy this experience,'" Bechtel reveals to POPSUGAR. "We were on set, and I forgot how to speak and became so hot. I was so excited. I have adored Sasha for so long — '[The Adventures of] Shark Boy and Lava Girl,' everything she's been in. It was so surreal, and it was so sweet of her. I was so happy."
Very little is known about Bechtel's character and her connection to "A" in the new series [6]. However, in an April interview with E! News [7], showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa said that Karen was once a "good friend" to Bailee Madison's Imogen, "but since their falling out, she has become a daily antagonist to our little liars." Could Karen be "A [8]"? It's possible, but that would too easy, wouldn't it? Guess we'll just have to wait and see.