ABC Family‘s flagship drama Pretty Little Liars is becoming a franchise. The cable network has given a straight to series order to Ravenswood, a spinoff drama from top-rated Pretty Little Liars, which has been renewed for a fifth season ahead of its fourth season premiere. Ravenswood hails from the same auspices as Pretty Little Liars: Warner Horizon Television and executive producers Marlene King, who developed Liars based on the Alloy books; Oliver Goldstick; Joseph Dougherty; and Alloy’s Leslie Morgenstein. Written by Liars co-showrunners King and Goldstick and Dougherty, the spinoff takes place in Ravenswood, a town near Liars‘ hometown of Rosewood PA, which has suffered under a deadly curse for generations. Ravenswood will premiere in October following the third annual Liars Halloween special. I hear the special will be used to introduce Ravenswood and its inhabitants.

The recent Season 3 finale of Liars hit a season high in teens (6.9 rating). It also became the #1 “most social” series episode on record, according to SocialGuide, and the first series episode to amass more than 1 million total airtime tweets (1,099,815) in TV history. Season 3 was Pretty Little Liars‘ most-watched season ever in adults 18-34 (1.7 rating), women 18-34 (2.8 rating) and women 18-49 (1.9 rating), and was ABC Family’s most-watched original series installment ever in its target 18-34 demo. For the 2012-2013 season to date, Liars is the #1 series across all TV in female teens. Season 4 of Pretty Little Liars will premiere Tuesday, June 11, when the series picks up the mystery of “Red Coat.”

This is the second hit Alloy/Warner Bros drama series to be prepping a spinoff, along with the CW’s The Vampire Diaries, which will air planted spinoff episode The Originals this spring.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva – tip her

Pretty Little Liars is ready to introduce some of the good people of Ravenswood, and we’ve got exclusive details on the spin-off’s cast of tortured characters.

The new drama finds five strangers suddenly connected by a fatal curse that haunts the city, prompting them to dig into their hometown’s mysterious past before it’s too late.

Read on to get the scoop on three Ravenswood series regulars who will make their debut during Liars’ third annual Halloween special, which will introduce the off-shoot’s titular city and its residents.

MIRANDA | She’s a feisty, disarming and unconventionally attractive 17-year-old. As a fiercely independent foster kid, she has tons of confidence, but it was hard-won. She uses her wits to cover her emotional scars. If you can break through the tough exterior, you’ve got a fearless, loyal friend for life.

ABEL | Hottie alert: The 17-year-old is a lone wolf and old soul with brooding intensity. He may have something dangerous lurking inside him — or maybe he’s just wounded and trying to hide it. His trust is hard to earn, but once you’ve got it, he’ll never let you down.

OLIVIA | Abel’s twin sister is a former prom queen who is struggling with a recent fall from grace. She used to be a carefree, happy teenager, but recent events have her questioning what’s important, what’s not and who her real friends are now that they’ve suddenly turned their backs on her.

Plus: Is Toby really dead? And who’s the girl in the red coat? Troian gives HollywoodLife.com some major season finale scoop.
With only one episode left on Pretty Little Liars this season — the finale airs March 19 at 8 p.m. — anything is possible, and no one knows that better than Troian Bellisario, who says we have yet to see Spencer’s true side. “Everyone’s been talking about Spencer 2.0 on Twitter, but really, what we’ve been seeing is the old Spencer being burned to the ground,” Troian explains to HollywoodLife.com. ”She was completely annihilated. We still don’t know what’s going to rise from the ashes.”

Naturally, fans are already suspecting that Spencer could re-emerge darker than we know her now — especially after she got that black hoodie last week — and Troian isn’t shooting down any theories just yet.

“A lot of people are wondering if Spencer is the new Mona,” Troian teases. “It was very fun for me to navigate those murky waters, as Spencer has been completely reinventing herself.”

Is Toby Really Dead?
There may be a Toby-looking body at the morgue, but Troian is quick to remind fans not to accept everything at face value — particularly in Rosewood.

“What’s really fun about our show is that there’s always that burning question: Is anybody really dead?” Troian tells me. “There was definitely a body — dressed like him, with his tattoo, who Spencer fully believes was Toby — but she didn’t get to identify him. There’s still a ray of hope for all the Toby fans. The last episode is really going to be about that big moment where we find out if he’s really dead, or if he’s alive… somewhere.

Who’s The Girl In The Red Coat?
The identity of the girl in the red coat is finally revealed on the season finale, and thanks to a first-look photo, we know Spencer is the unlucky liar who comes face-to-face with her. But who is she? Troian won’t say — did you expect her to? — but she does offer some insight that should pique your curiosity.

“I literally had to stop reading the script, and I looked up at [creator Marlene King] and was like, ‘Wait, WHAT?’” Troian recalls from the table read of the finale. “That was my first ‘gotcha’ in the entirety of Pretty Little Liars. It’s going to be a pretty shocking moment for everybody.”

OK, if it was enough to surprise Troian, then you know that reveal is going to be epic

We Pretty Little Liars fans may still have our feet firmly planted in Season 3 (Is Jason dead?! Did Spence really join the “A” team?!), but the cast and crew have moved on. Season 4 filming started today, and showrunner Marlene King has this to say about the new season: “Rosewood will never be the same.”

Marlene tweeted a pic of the day’s call sheet (closed set, crew to arrive at 7 a.m.) along with this teasing description of the day — and season! — to come: “Day 1. Episode 401. After today, Rosewood will never be the same. Anybody ready to say ‘action?’”

Eek! Will Season 4 pick up directly where Season 3 leaves off? After all, Season 2 did, with the girls dealing with the immediate aftermath of having told the police about Ian’s death. However, Season 3 picked up months after the Season 2 finale, when the girls reunited after a summer spent apart.

If Season 4 does immediately pick up where the third season left off, will Spencer (Troian Bellisario) finally get some answers from the mysterious woman in the Red Coat? And will the fire hinted at in the Season 3 finale still be burning? A possible twin reveal would definitely change Rosewood for good — at least for the Liars — as would a death, which at this point, has become a PLL finale tradition. And where does Toby’s mom fit into all of this?

We’re ready to call “action,” if no one else will… even if there’s no going back!

Why do you think Rosewood will “never be the same”? Let us know in the comments below.

Pretty Little LiarsSeason 3, Episode 23: “I’m Your Puppet” was overflowing with new clues. One of the best was Ms. Hasting’s memory of Alison(Sasha Pieterse) showing up at Spencer’s (Troian Bellisario) house, sporting a bloody lip and refusing to talk about what happened to her.

Later in the episode, Ali came to Spencer in an hallucination, and told her, amongst other things, that the person who hurt her that night was a girl. We have a feeling that whoever hurt Ali will be related to the ”A” teamand/or her murder.

So who was it? At this point, the list of female who’d want to hurt Ali is pretty much endless. That said, we have a couple theories we think are more likely — and more interesting — than others.

Ali herself. Let’s say Ali did fake her own death, which is not an entirely unlikely theory. In that case, we’d believe Ali would intentionally hurt herself and then make sure she was seen, to make it seem like something bad was going down with her, making her “murder” more plausible.

Ali’s twin. Another popular theory: Ali has a twin. If that theory turns out to be true, maybe Ali had a run in with her lookalike. If one twin killed the other, which is what most people suspect is the case if this theory is true, it would make sense if they’d tangled once or twice before that.

Spencer. Repressed memory, maybe? If Ali’s appearance really was a hallucination, perhaps this was Spencer’s subconscious trying to tell her something.

Of course, perpetually suspicious CeCe (Vanessa Ray) and Melissa (Torrey DeVitto) are also likely candidates

Some girls play with dolls, others play with corpses. The ladies of Pretty Little Liars found themselves in the latter category this week, as they infiltrated the Rosewood Morgue — is that not what it’s called? — to make sure Toby (Keegan Allen) wasn’t really dead. But just when they thought they’d put all their fears to bed, Emily’s (Shay Mitchell) mom informed the girls that another young man’s body was found in the park! She actually only told Emily, but c’mon, we all know these girls suck at keeping secrets.

Meanwhile, Spencer (Troian Bellisario) remained holed up at Radley Sanitarium — and getting crazier by the minute. She even (possibly) hallucinated an encounter with Ali (Sasha Pieterse), which led her to a few goodies Mona (Janel Parrish) left behind from her stay at the nuthouse. After a little chat with Wren (Julian Morris) — whom Spencer’s new buddy Eddie doesn’t trust one bit — we learned that CeCe (Vanessa Ray) had been visiting Mona has a potential role model for her. Ali’s shenanigans had gotten CeCe kicked out of college, which sent her on a downward spiral. Fortunately she’d gotten out of it, so she wanted to mentor younger people experiencing mental instability.

The plot thickens…

Aria’s Misadventures In Babysitting
Remember last week when Aria (Lucy Hale) was a bad babysitter? Well, this week, she cranked the bad-babysitting up to 11! When she went to pick up Malcolm from karate practice, he’d already been taken home by “Aria Montgomery,” which meant two things: “A” has resorted to dirtier tricks than ever, and that karate group’s security system is horrendous. Aria eventually tracked down Ezra’s (Ian Harding) mini-me at the circus, where he told her he was picked up by a girl who said her name was “Alison.” Freaky!

Malcolm told Maggie he had a great day at the circus, so you’d think that’d be end of it, right? All’s well that ends well? Eh, not quite. Aria told Ezra she thinks this is merely a sign of more trouble to come in their relationship, so it’d be best to end things now. That’s right, folks, another “Ezria” split.

Caleb’s Daddy Issues
And it’s a good thing Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) has that thick head of luxurious hair, because he needed those extra-long locks to wipe his tears this week. Between the missing church bell, and the mysterious dice-covered bill, Caleb had all the proof he needed that Jamie was still a no-good thief. But when “A” revealed the entire thing had been a set-up, Caleb was furious — at Hanna (Ashley Benson)!