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Jared Padalecki, Leighton Meester Cast In The Bodyguard At Netflix

Jared Padalecki and Leighton Meester will star in the film adaptation of Katherine Center's book The Bodyguard at Netflix.

Published Fri, 19 Sep 2025 18:08:04 -0500

by Kaitlyn Booth

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Article Summary

Jared Padalecki and Leighton Meester star in Netflix's adaptation of Katherine Center's The Bodyguard.
Netflix continues its streak of romantic book adaptations after past successes like The Lost Husband.
Filming begins December 2025, with the story shifting the book's Texas setting to Montana for the movie.
Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum directs the romantic comedy, with a Netflix release expected in 2026.

Netflix is back to courting the romance genre, and they are bringing in the big guns. And by the big guns, we mean two people who were cast in two massive CW shows, both of which have fandoms that are still pretty active to this day (though one more than the other). The Bodyguard by Katherine Center was first published in 2022 and became a New York Times bestseller. Netflix has adapted Center's work before; in 2020, an adaptation of The Lost Husband was released, and in 2023, Happiness for Beginners was also released. Both of the films did very well for the streaming services, so it makes sense that, according to What's On Netflix, The Bodyguard is the next film for a big screen adaptation. Jared Padalecki and Leighton Meester, thus bringing together the impressive team of Supernatural, Gossip Girl, and book fans.

A promotional collage featuring two celebrities alongside the book cover of "The Bodyguard" by Katherine Center. The cover showcases a colorful illustration of two characters standing back to back, with flowers and a bright background. — L-R: LOS ANGELES – AUG 4: Jared Padalecki at the CW Summer TCA All-Star Party at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on August 4, 2019 in Beverly Hills, CA. Editorial credit: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com | Leighton Meester at the 82nd Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, USA on January 5, 2025. Editorial credit: Tinseltown / Shutterstock.com | Credit: Amazon

Filming on The Bodyguard is reportedly set to start in December 2025, so Netflix isn't wasting any time to get this one off the ground. The plot of the movie is also different from the book.

"A famous movie star who has been plagued by a dangerous stalker and has hired a bodyguard for his protection. However, when he decides to spend the holidays at his family's ranch in Montana, he must pretend that his bodyguard is his girlfriend."

Specifically, the location of everything is shifting with the book taking place in Texas and the film moving to Montana. The Bodyguard is a Netflix Original romantic-comedy film directed by Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum (Ginny & Georgia) and written by Grant Scharbo, Richard Keith, and Erin Cardillo, and adapted from the novel of the same name. At the moment, there doesn't appear to be a release date, but sometime in 2026 is a good guess, all things considered.

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