Disturbingly enough for those of us who loved the scathing teen classic Mean Girls back in 2004, the movie’s now ripe for reimagining. It has been 20 years, to be fair—and a new generation of queen bees, wannabes, and “home-schooled jungle freaks” is ready to learn the real meaning of the word “fetch”. It’s like, slang. From England!
Here’s everything we’ve heard in the North Shore hallways about 2024’s musical Mean Girls remake, from where you might recognise the fresh cast to who’s reprising their role from the original hit film. Grab your camcorders, cool moms and grotsky biatches: we’re goin’ shopping.
1. Australia’s Angourie Rice is our naive lead Cady
Originally played by Lindsay Lohan in the 2004 high school classic, protagonist Cady Heron’s surname sounds a tad like “heroine”—and rising Aussie star Angourie Rice has already played a few of those. From Mare of Easttown to Black Mirror and a supporting role in the Tom Holland Spidey movies, Rice has a refreshing ingenue quality that will see her totally out of her depths amidst the bitchiness of North Shore high. She’ll even open the movie musical with a classic “I Want” song, singing her heart out in rewritten ballad “What Ifs”.
2. Reneé Rapp is destined for bad girl greatness as Regina George
The blonde The Sex Lives of College Girls star played teen queen Regina George on Broadway for some of the Mean Girls musical’s run, and her burgeoning pop princess career made her a shoo-in for the story’s cinematic revamp. Rapp’s debut album came out in 2022, marking her as one of Gen Z’s current bisexual icons, and we can’t wait to hear her belt out the musical’s villain song “World Burn”. As right-hand woman Gretchen and loveable bimbo Karen, triple threats Bebe Wood and Avantika offer new takes on Regina’s impenetrably glossy clique.
3. Tina Fey is back on script duty—and starring again as Ms. Norbury
Way back in 2002, SNL writer and star Tina Fey saw something special in the non-fiction parenting guide Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence (whew). The book became an all-time great, endlessly quotable movie, as we all know, and Fey then adapted that movie for the 2018-2022 Broadway show. Despite two decades passing since Fey first played encouraging math teacher Ms. Norbury, she somehow looks completely ageless in her return to the role. Her fellow SNL buddy Tim Meadows is also back as the (rightfully) resentful Principal Duvall.
4. Jon Hamm, Busy Phillipps, Jenna Fischer and Ashley Park play clueless grown-ups
It’s a shame Fey’s longtime comedy collaborator Amy Poehler isn’t back as Regina’s desperate mum! Instead, we get Busy Phillipps as the McMansion queen, and Jon Hamm as lecherous teacher Coach Carr. The Office‘s Jenna Fischer brings some warmth to the production as Cady’s concerned mum, but we have no word yet on whether these familiar TV faces will bust out a song or no. Emily in Paris star Ashley Park, however, has proven her pipes on many occasions: she played Gretchen in Mean Girls’ original Broadway run, and will here have a cameo as new character Madame Park.
5. Rebels Damien and Janis are played by Jaquel Spivey and Moana’s Auli’i Cravalho
The most loveable—and arguably quotable—characters in 2004’s Mean Girls were Janis and Damien, the “art freaks” who take Cady under their wing and orchestrate an elaborate scheme to get revenge on the loathsome queen bee Regina George. In a contrast to the original film’s predominantly white cast, Tony award winner Spivey and Moana voice actress Cravalho are welcome additions to the remake’s lineup. They get plenty of solo and ensemble numbers to crow during the movie, including scene-setting song “A Cautionary Tale”.
6. The plot now takes place in an even crueller setting: the social media age
As if high school wasn’t hard enough back in 2004, the newest batch of teens at North Shore now have a whole new arena to contend with. The Mean Girls musical remake takes place in the present day, meaning Regina, Gretchen and Karen can spread their salacious gossip through their phones just as easily as classroom whisperings. This’ll go way beyond some three-way phone-call ambushes, we’re sure.
The costumes for the new film, too, are updated to reflect TikTok microtrends, taking over from the Juicy Couture-inspired, Paris Hilton pinkness of the original film. Ironically enough, many of the noughties trends from that film have been around long enough to be considered retro, and are back in fashion just in time to appear in the 2024 film *wizened shudder*.
7. The stage musical got mixed-to-good reviews, and is headed to the West End
With a book by Tina Fey and music from her husband Jeff Richmond, the Mean Girls musical was necessarily padded out into a two-act production, and some critics of the Broadway show found it all less compelling than its iconic source material. “Some of the movie’s best jokes don’t fully land in their delivery”, Vulture complained, with the New York Times calling the show’s “many (many) musical numbers” merely “passable by middle-of-the-road Broadway standards”. Despite some lukewarm takes, the generally positive conclusions of most reviews—plus crazed enthusiasm from theatre kids and fans of the ’04 film—has sent the production to London’s West End, where it’ll play again in 2024 after the New York run was cut short due to COVID.
8. Rachel McAdams has ruled out a cameo :(
McAdams’ profile seriously took off after her role as the cunning Regina George…in fact, she might just be too famous now to drop in for a quick cameo role in the 2024 remake. Speaking to Variety, McAdams said that she and screenwriter Tina Fey had “sort of dabbled with a few ideas, but it was tough to make it all work in the end.” The Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret actress claims to have been “really down for whatever [Fey] wanted to do”, and will be front of the line for tickets once the remake is released: “I think the direction it went in will be fantastic and I cannot wait to see it.”
9. But! The OG Plastics did have a recent reunion, if only in an ad
McAdams was less keen, however, on joining her former gal pals Lohan, Lacey Chabert, and Amanda Seyfried in a fan-service-y Walmart ad celebrating the superstore’s Black Friday sales. Good call, we reckon: “I guess I wasn’t that excited about doing a commercial if I’m being totally honest”, McAdams admitted. Here’s the full advert, in all its legacy-sucking, brand-first ghoulishness.
The commercial has clearly put a bunch of thought into synergising the 2004 film‘s most iconic moments and characters (including Missy Elliott for some vague reason?!) into a product-a-palooza. “Get in sweetie!”, Lacey Chabert grimaces, “we’re going deal shopping!”
10. Megan Thee Stallion spits some bars on the movie’s single “Not My Fault”
A better bit of cross-promo is the fun single and music video “Not My Fault”, featuring Reneé Rapp and rap icon Megan Thee Stallion as a pair of self-obsessed, pink-clad pop queens. Meg even sports the original Regina George’s legendary singlet with exposed bra holes, spitting out referential bars such as, “it’s funny how the mean girl open all the doors/I been told y’all, I’m the Black Regina George.”
11. Early reviews say the film finds a good balance between homage and reinvention
As with most blockbusters, it’ll take a minute for the Mean Girls musical to receive enough real criticism to reflect an accurate Rotten Tomatoes rating or popular consensus. But the first folks seeing the film are overwhelmingly on board, singling out Rapp’s teen queen and Cravalho’s artsy Janis as performance highlights.
The second we walked out of #MeanGirls my daughter turned to me and said, “Dad, you have no idea how much I loved that movie.”
She just started high school, kids are being miserable to each other, and she told me it felt like the film was made specifically for her at a time… pic.twitter.com/UIhjjUaF91
— Erik Davis (@ErikDavis) January 5, 2024
Collider‘s Perri Nemiroff called the film’s songs “memorable” and was “blown away” by how well each number is woven into the plot. Pop Culture Planet praised the cast cast for “rising to the challenge” of some vocally complex tunes, and claimed we should “get ready to be obsessed” with Mean Girls all over again. Sounds pretty fetch, to use the terminology of one Gretchen Weiners.
12. You should go see the movie on a Wednesday. While wearing pink. Obviously.
We can’t help but think the marketing and in-cinema experience of the new Mean Girls is taking a page out of Barbie’s Burn Book, inspiring fans to show up at their theatre in the pinkest, mean girl-iest ensembles possible. Although the movie is released the day after Wednesday in most regions outside the US, that’s still the ideal day to go and check out Mean Girls 2024—if you’re a true disciple of the Plastics arbitrary social rules, that is.
Of course, if you can’t wait for the remake to hit cinemas, you could always check out the forgotten Mean Girls 2 in the meantime. If you’re a masochist, that is.
i dare every mean girls (2024) hater to watch mean girls 2 first
— ellie (@rmjworldburn) January 3, 2024
