Noah Centineo Shares How His Peter Kavinsky Cameo in XO, Kitty Season 2 Came About (Exclusive)

The return of Peter Kavinsky in XO, Kitty season 2 was a dream come true for To All The Boys fans, but it felt a little risky to Noah Centineo.

The 28-year-old actor reprised his role as the beloved boyfriend of Lara Jean Song Covey (Lana Condor) in an episode of the Anna Cathcart-led spinoff series, which premiered Jan. 16, and he tells PEOPLE it was “kind of daunting” stepping back into Peter’s shoes.

“Not kind of — it is daunting. It’s extremely scary,” he admits. “Peter Kavinsky and To All the Boys, I mean that franchise is so beloved, that you kind of don’t want to touch it.”

Eager to not “mess it up” as it’s “been a couple of years” since he played the character, who Jenny Han created in the To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy book series, Centineo calls the cameo “a bit of a risk” — but not one he would ever really decline.

“I love Anna so much. She’s just doing such an incredible job and [I’d do] anything to support her,” he says of Cathcart, 21, who leads the series as the younger sister of Peter’s girlfriend Lara Jean.

“I just support everything she’s doing,” he continues. “She’s such a hardworking actress and such a professional. I joke and say she was literally the most hardworking person, most prepared person on all the films for To All the Boys. And she works so hard [on XO, Kitty]. She deserves it all.”

The cameo came about largely due to timing. Centineo was already in Seoul, South Korea to film season 2 of The Recruit — a Netflix series where he stars as troublemaker CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks — when producer Matt Kaplan called. “[He] just said, ‘Hey, you’re shooting in Seoul at the same time we are. Would you do this [cameo in XO, Kitty]?’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’”

His former costar, Condor, 27, was equally excited about the return of the beloved Peter Kavinsky. He says he texted the Lara Jean actress to tell her the news and she thought it was “awesome” and “so great.”

In a behind-the-scenes video from Centineo’s day on set, Cathcart told Netflix it was “wild” to reunite with her friend, as the pair hadn’t been on camera together since she was 16 while filming the final film of the To All the Boys trilogy.

“The best part is getting to now work together but at such a different stage of our characters’ lives but also our own lives,” she said.

With a reprisal of one of Netflix’s fan-favorite fictional boyfriends — albeit brief — now under his belt, Centineo is shifting his focus back to international espionage, as he gears up for the premiere of The Recruit season 2 on Jan. 30.

Past Lives‘ Teo Yoo joins Centineo in season 2, as his character Owen is “pulled into a life-threatening espionage situation in South Korea, only to realize that the bigger threat just might be coming from inside” the CIA, per the official synopsis.

Getting to film on-location in South Korea “elevates” the season, he told Netflix’s Tudum, but also gives the show “fertile ground for all the vicious and life-threatening fun Owen loves to find himself in the middle of.”

As for what’s next for Centineo, who got his start on The Fosters before his breakout role in the To All the Boys films, it’s unlikely that XO, Kitty is the last of his romance days.

“At some point, I would like to go back to romance,” he tells PEOPLE. “I don’t know if it would be YA, but I do want to go back to romance.”

In the meantime, though, his “goals are to work with filmmakers that I love and that I think are incredible and just kind of follow that. So who knows where it’s going to lead.”

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XO, Kitty season 2 is now streaming on Netflix and season 2 of The Recruit premieres Jan. 30.