AfterEllen.Com: Marlene King Speaks About PLL As A Series, Paily, Maya's Death and Nate/Em

AfterEllen.com recently spoke to Marlene King about "A", the time frame of the series, Maya's death, Paily, Nate and Em's relationship and Emily being gay.

On who "A" is and when we'll find out 

"Can't say...some day you'll find out...sort of [we will find who "A" is in S3]" 

"It was five but now I feel we have a great story for six [seasons]...Then I feel like we have a great ending that could lead us to a movie after that. That's my hope and I think it's Warner Brothers' hope, too." 

On the time frame for PLL as the series  

"The Pretty Little Liars are seniors. I think they're going to be seniors for a long time.They were juniors for two years, so they'll probably be seniors for three years...Most episodes are an hour later, an hour later, an hour later."  

On what's ahead for Paily 

"I'll just tell you there's a big sort of twist coming up in that relationship and it's exciting. But I did love tonight's episode. For me, those two have chemistry. I know the Emayans will be sad to hear that, but I think if they gave Paige a chance, they'll see there's a spark between these two."  

On Maya's death 

"It was something that I really did struggle with. It's not easy to know the hardship it's going to cause people when you kill off a character. But I will be honest: I don't think I knew how much it was going to affect people. I underestimated how devastating it would be to a huge block of our fans."

On Nate and Em's relationship

"I think it's natural for them to think that," she said. "I think that he offers some things to Emily that is significant in terms of his connection to Maya and vice versa." 

On whether Alison returned Em's feelings, or it was just Ali's normal manipulation

"I think it's a little of both...I think you may find out as the show goes on that Allison liked to dabble a little bit. It wasn't just for toying purposes."

On the reaction of all the PLL characters to Em's coming out

"I just feel like it's a responsibility as a human being to portray every kind of individual and different character you can and put them in a setting that is hopefully non-judgmental...For me, it really was — I wanted to give Emily acceptance by her friends. Parents was a different thing. But i wanted to say let's set the tone for the scenario for Emily Fields: She comes out to her friends and they accept her unconditionally because I feel energy breeds energy."

What are you most excited about?