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.