Get in losers, we’re getting a movie-musical adaptation of Mean Girls.
The legendary hit comedy, Mean Girls, released almost twenty years ago in 2004, if you can believe it, and it changed an entire generation. From the stellar Mean Girls cast that featured some legendary stars, to the writing to everything else, it truly has become one of the best teen comedies out there and one that is quotable from beginning to end. So of course, it was adapted into a Broadway musical.
The musical adaptation, the book for which was also written by Tina Fey, who wrote the original movie, was a Tony-Award nominated musical that has had a very successful run, and now, that movie musical is going to be getting an adaptation. But who is going to be starring in this adaptation? And is the spectacular Tina Fey returning to write it? Let’s get into what we know so far.
What Is The Mean Girls: The Musical Release Date?
At the time of writing this, in March 2023, an official release date for Mean Girls: The Musical has not been announced. However, what we can report is that the musical is going to debut on Paramount Plus, according to Deadline.
This isn’t that much of a surprise, as it was only announced at the end of 2022 officially for fans to get excited about after being in development since 2020, so it appearing on any 2023 movie schedule would be honestly quite impressive for a film to get turned around that quickly. However, maybe we'll get a chance to see the move in 2024. Here's hoping!
Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, And More Are Set To Star
While nothing can ever quite beat the original Mean Girls cast, with stars such as Rachel McAdams, Lindsey Lohan, Amanda Seyfried and more, the cast for the Mean Girls movie musical is already looking to be pretty awesome.
According to that Deadline article from earlier about the announcement, four of the main characters have already been cast. Angourie Rice -- who you may recognize as Betty from the MCU Spider-Man movies -- will play Cady, Reneé Rapp will play Regina, Auli’i Cravalho will play Janis, and Jaquel Spivey will play Damian.
Already from this announcement, I’m feeling excited about this film with these choices. I’m already a big fan of both Rapp (who is a part of The Sex Lives of College Girls cast) and Cravalho (who voiced Moana in the film Moana and has a stellar TV resume), but I’m eager to see what the rest of this cast is going to bring to these iconic roles.
Also announced from Deadline is that Avantika will play Karen, Bebe Wood will play Gretchen, and Christopher Briney will play Aaron. Similarly from Deadline, both Tina Fey and Tim Meadows are set to reprise their roles from the original movie, Ms. Norbury and Principal Duval.
Jenna Fischer, known mainly for her time on The Office cast, is also set to star in the film, playing Ms. Heron, Cady’s mom. Also joining onto the cast is Busy Phillips, who is going to portray Ms. George, Regina’s mom in Mean Girls: The Musical, according to Deadline.
Something else that’s also fun that was confirmed is that Ashley Park, the original actress who portrayed Gretchen Wieners in the Broadway adaptation, will have a part in the upcoming film, according to Entertainment Tonight. She’s since made a name for herself as being a part of the Emily In Paris cast, but it’s so exciting to see her come back to the role that she originated.
The Movie Is An Adaptation Of The Broadway Musical Of The Same Name
Obviously as stated before, Mean Girls: The Musical is based on the movie, Mean Girls, an adaptation of the original film. The main premise of the story is that it follows Cady Heron, the new girl in school who moves from South Africa to the United States, and quickly makes friends with Janice and Damian, known haters of the schools ‘mean girls,’ The Plastics.
Together, the trio creates a plan in order to take down The Plastics from the inside, but soon, Cady slowly finds herself turning into a mean girl as well when she starts to see how nice life can be at the top of the high school food chain – and how it can all quickly crumble down.
Arturo Perez Jr. And Samantha Jayne Will Direct
Reported by Variety, it was confirmed that Mean Girls: The Musical is going to be co-directed by Arturo Perez and Samantha Jayne. The husband-wife duo is making their film directorial debut with this movie, so I’m eager to see where they take this movie and how much fun it’s going to be.
Tina Fey Is Writing The Adaptation
Another piece of news that we received from the initial announcement from Deadline is that Tina Fey herself, the person who wrote the screenplay for the 2004 movie, and the book for the Broadway adaptation, is also returning to write the adaptation of the musical for the big screen.
This is big news for fans of the original movie, because hopefully it'll mean we’re going to get the same kind of quality in terms of comedy and hilarity that we did in the original Mean Girls. I for one can’t wait to see what happens with this, as Fey has done so much in her career since the first film came out.
Filming Started In March 2023
Get excited friends, because filming is underway for Mean Girls: The Musical as of March 2023.
Posted to the official Twitter page for the movie, it was confirmed that filming for Mean Girls: The Musical is underway.
Get in, loser. We’re starting production on Mean Girls Musical. 💕 #MeanGirlsMovie pic.twitter.com/AbuastPjtYMarch 7, 2023
I can’t wait to see the updates for this movie as production moves forward, and I am counting down the days until a trailer gets released.
What are you the most excited for when it comes to Mean Girls: The Musical? All I know is that I am going to be stocking up on pink so I can rock out when I watch the movie on my big screen while singing my heart out.
