SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Panic,” streaming now on Amazon Prime Video. Many fans of Lauren Oliver’s young adult novel “Panic,” following …
’s young adult novel “Panic,” following high school seniors who take part in the dangerous eponymous game every year with hopes of winning thousands of dollars to help set up their adult lives, were disappointed when that novel was not turned into a multi-book series, as is common in the genre. In fact, Oliver tellsshe did want to write it as a book series, so when that didn’t happen, she turned her attention to a new medium: television.
Small differences between the page and screen versions include everything from the location to the amount of the game winnings . Many larger character and plot points were changed in the adaptation process, as well, including why Heather joined the game in the first place, and who really needed to be punished in the end.
Ray Hall and his brother Luke have also been altered from the book. There, they were the “bad boys” of the town. Here, they are depicted more as victims of circumstance. While Luke steals cars, Oliver points out, “under similar situations I’d probably be boosting cars, too.” He was assumed to have been the one to cause Dayna’s paralysis in the show, too — though from a regular car accident, not the game — but that turned out to be false rumors.
“The biggest [fear] they have is ultimately why they play. You don’t see Bishop playing, but of course he comes from a very privileged environment,” she says.