4 things to know about the new Mean Girls movie before watching

There’s a new Mean Girls movie out! Tina Fey, who scripted the authentic Mean Girls again in 2004, wrote the script for the new movie primarily based on her e book for the Broadway musical model. However this time, the lead roles are performed by Angourie Rice (Mare of Easttown), Reneé Rapp (The Intercourse Lives of Faculty Girls), and Auliʻi Cravalho (Moana), The trailers make it appear like a comfortable reboot of the 2004 movie directed by Mark Waters, however set twenty years later. However that isn’t fairly the case. Whereas the 2024 Mean Girls contains plenty of references to the 2004 movie (and some returning solid members), it comes with a definite new twist.

Right here’s all the things you may count on from — or is likely to be questioning about — the 2024 Mean Girls.

Is the 2024 Mean Girls a musical?

For individuals who noticed or heard about the Broadway musical, this may increasingly seem to be an apparent query. However the early trailers mostly hid the movie’s musical status, and anecdotal proof from early screenings has made it clear that some viewers members had been pretty surprised to find themselves at a musical. The new Mean Girls is an adaptation of the 2018 stage musical, which is primarily based on the 2004 movie. The songs had been written by Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin, and the authentic Broadway run starred Erika Henningsen (Hazbin Resort) as Cady, Barrett Wilbert Weed (Heathers: The Musical) as Janis, Taylor Louderman as Regina George, and Ashley Park (Solely Murders in the Constructing) as Gretchen Wieners.

All three variations had been written by Tina Fey, although, who was impressed by the parenting e book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman. The 2024 movie was directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., making their function movie debut.

Mean Girls (2024) tells a narrative comparable to that of the 2004 movie, but it surely takes place in the 2020s, so it updates the story round particular cultural touchpoints: as an example, highschool college students speaking gossip by way of social media and TikToks as an alternative of conference calls.

What songs had been minimize or added to the 2024 Mean Girls movie?

As with many theatrical variations of stage musicals, some authentic songs had been added for this movie, some had been minimize from the Broadway rendition, and a few had been switched round to completely different characters. In Mean Girls (2024), Cady’s huge belting opening quantity “It Roars” was changed with the extra subdued “What If?”, seemingly to accommodate Angourie Rice’s vocal vary. A number of the introduction songs, like “Where Do You Belong?” and “Meet the Plastics,” had been equally minimize or stripped down.

Different songs minimize from the Broadway model of Mean Girls are “Stop,” through which Damian (Jaquel Spivey in the movie model) calls Cady out for turning right into a mega bitch; “Whose House Is This?”, which facilities round the home social gathering that goes uncontrolled; “Fearless,” the Plastics’ huge anthem after they oust Regina as Queen Bee; “More Is Better,” the love duet between Cady and Aaron; and “Do This Thing,” which takes place throughout the mathletes match.

One other huge change is available in “Apex Predator.” In the stage model, it’s a duet between Cady and Janis. In the movie, Damian takes over Cady’s components — as soon as once more, seemingly to accommodate Rice and let Spivey flex his spectacular vocals.

Does Mean Girls have a post-credits scene?

It does! Mean Girls’ post-credits scene isn’t an enormous plot hook for Mean Girls 2, a shock look from an previous solid member, or a reprise of one in all the songs. It’s an especially quick, two-line shot the place Regina (sans the neck brace she’s carrying at the finish of the movie), with the Plastics behind her, appears to be like at the digital camera and says, “You’re next!” — principally inviting you, the viewer, to bear a makeover and turn into so sizzling, in case you’re keen to put in the work. She’s principally commanding us all to turn into Plastics, if we dare embrace the darkish aspect.

Which members of the 2004 Mean Girls solid seem in the 2024 movie?

Cameo spoiler forward!

Tina Fey has been tight-lipped about whether or not anybody from the authentic Broadway solid or 2004 solid would seem in the 2024 movie, so as to protect the shock. It’s clear sufficient from the trailers that she herself reprises her position as Ms. Norbury, Cady’s AP Calculus trainer, with Tim Meadows coming again as Principal Duvall. (Longtime followers is likely to be satisfied to be taught that they’re romantic companions in the new movie, which solely comes out in a brief however candy alternate in a single scene.)

There’s one small cameo from the Broadway play: Ashley Park, who originated the position of Gretchen in the musical, performs Madame Park, the faculty’s French trainer. For longtime followers of the 2004 movie, although, the huge reveal comes at the finish of the movie, when Lindsay Lohan — the authentic Cady — seems in a cameo at the finish, as the announcer overseeing the mathletes match the place Cady and her group win with the iconic “the limit does not exist” reply. Lohan will get a number of spoken traces and will get to carry some authority to overseeing the match, in just a little nod to her central position in the authentic movie.

Mean Girls debuts in theaters on Jan. 12.