Mean Girls has gone from a book to a movie to a musical, and it’s now becoming a movie musical to complete the adaptation chain. Paramount has finally made the first trailer available online, so here’s everything we know about Mean Girls—2024 edition.
The release date wore cargo shorts with flip-flops
Paramount just announced that the release date has been set for January 12, 2024, less than four months away. Honestly, they missed the opportunity to release the film on October 3, a.k.a. National Mean Girls Day. The film was originally slated for streaming release on Paramount+, but will now be getting a theatrical release. The trailer was previously a theatrical exclusive, but Paramount has finally released the YouTube version:
The cast is SO fetch!
Broadway actress Reneé Rapp (The Sex Lives of College Girls) is reprising her role as Regina George, while Angourie Rice, Auliʻi Cravalho, and Jaquel Spivey will be playing Cady Heron, Janis I’mi’ike (the character known as Janis Ian in the original movie), and Damian, respectively. The characters of Aaron Samuels, Gretchen Weiners, and Karen Shetty (named Karen Smith in the first Mean Girls movie) will be played by Christopher Briney, Bebe Wood, and Avantika Vandanapu, respectively.
Tina Fey and Tim Meadows are reprising their roles from the 2004 film. Fey reprising her role is especially ironic, as Fey appeared in an SNL sketch where she tried to audition for a role in the Broadway show, only to realize how much work it is to be on Broadway.
The remaining cast includes Jenna Fischer as Ms. Heron (Cady Heron’s mom), Busy Philipps as Mrs. George (Regina’s mom), Mahi Alam as Kevin Ganatra (the character known as Kevin Gnapoor in the 2004 movie), Connor Ratliff as Mr. Rapp, and Jon Hamm as Coach Carr. Ashley Park, who played Gretchen in the original Broadway production, reportedly has a cameo role.
Whatever, the plot is getting cheese fries
The upcoming Mean Girls movie is, of course, an adaptation of the Mean Girls musical, which itself was an adaptation of the 2004 Mean Girls movie. If that wasn’t enough, the film was loosely based on the book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman, who claims she has not received any royalties from Mean Girls or its many adaptations.
The plot follows Cady Heron, a new student who spent her childhood in Africa. As she enters the American school system for high school, she is taken under the wing of social outcasts Janis I’mi’iki and Damian. She also meets the Plastics, popular girls Regina George, Gretchen Weiners, and Karen Shetty. After Regina “steals” Cady’s crush, Cady sets out on a revenge plot that threatens to turn her into the very thing she hates: a Mean Girl.
(featured image: Paramount Pictures)
