Mean Girls The Musical Is Coming To The Big Screen

It’s the movie that keeps on giving: 20 years on from its premiere, Mean Girls continues to be a quintessential part of pop culture. We recently reported that the hit stage musical of the film is coming to London this summer, but you don’t need to wait that long: Tina Fey is adapting the musical back from the stage to the big screen, with Mean Girls set to come to cinemas this Friday.

If The Color Purple musical remake and Wicked adaptations haven’t gotten you excited enough, the Mean Girls musical proves we might be in a new golden age for movie musicals.

What is Mean Girls about?

The title is pretty self-explanatory, of course, but as a refresher, the 2024 version of Mean Girls has been in the works for a few years now, with writer Fey hard at work on getting it just right.

The original Mean Girls helped cement her as a powerhouse talent in comedy, and it rose to the heights of 90s comedy classic Clueless as one of the best teen movies around. It’s almost required when talking about it to list the endless quotes about days to wear pink and making fetch happen, but the film seems to be more relevant than ever in 2024, as it did in 2004. That’s why there’s such buzz over the musical version, which debuted in the US in 2017, coming to the big screen.

Who is set to star?

With the same songs as on stage, Mean Girls will see Angourie Rice step into Lindsay Lohan’s shoes as Cady Heron, the 16-year-old protagonist who became an icon in a film where every scene is iconic. Rice starred alongside Kate Winslet in Mare of Easttown and Jennifer Garner in The Last Thing He Told Me, but she’s best known as high schooler Betty Brant in the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies.

Meanwhile, the rich and popular mean girl Regina is played by Reneé Rapp, who played her on Broadway, and Bebe Wood (Love, Victor) and Avantika Vandanapu (Senior Year) are set to play Gretchen and Karen. Jaquel Spivey (A Strange Loop) plays Damian, while Fey herself is Ms. Norbury. Jon Hamm (Mad Men), Jenna Fischer (The Office) and Tim Meadows (The Goldbergs) also star.

Is there a trailer?

Yes, though its release was somewhat unusual. The trailer had been showing before screenings of The Eras Tour, so if you’re a Swiftie, you might have caught a glimpse early, but if you weren’t, you had to sit tight for its release. But it was worth it!

As shown in the trailer, you can expect plenty of iconic lines to resurface, as well as a similar storyline to the original. One thing that is unusual about the release is that the trailer didn’t really glimpse at this being a musical and some fans of the original found out by watching it. Let’s just say, some were unhappy.

Is there a release date?

The film itself will arrive in cinemas on 19th January.