Fans love ‘iconic’ reunion with old and new Mean Girls characters at film’s premiere

With the new Mean Girls movie premiering in theatres on Friday 12 January, the cast of the Broadway musical adaptation attended the film’s premiere at AMC Lincoln Square Theatre in New York City.

In addition to the new cast, many of the original cast from the 2004 movie showed up to the pink carpet on Monday 8 January, to the surprise of fans.

One specific interaction making its way across X, formerly known as Twitter, is a clip of Jaquel Spivey, who plays Damian in the new Mean Girls film, sharing a hug with Daniel Franzese, who originated the role. Many fans of the film took to the comments to praise how sweet the interaction was.

“This is why representation is so important. All of us want to be seen and accepted for who we are,” one comment read.

Another agreed, writing: “Passing the torch we love to see it!”

“They’re basically twins. Iconic,” a third commenter pointed out.

Other notable appearances at the premiere included Lindsay Lohan, who originated the role of Cady Heron. The actor was stylishly dressed in a long-sleeved black gown with side cut-outs and diamond detailing, and took the time to pose for a photo with the creator and Ms Norbury in both films, Tina Fey and the new Cady Heron, Angourie Rice.

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Rajiv Surendra, who played rapping mathlete Kevin Gnapoor, also known as Kevin G showed up as well, sporting his character’s mathlete varsity jacket on the carpet.

This isn’t the first some of the cast members from the original film have reunited. Walmart shared an advertisement – featuring three of the film’s original stars, Lohan, Amanda Seyfried, and Lacey Chabert – on 1 November 2023, leading up to the announcement of the brand’s Black Friday deals. Although the three stars were in the commercial, one of the leads of Mean Girls, Rachel McAdams, was absent.

In the beloved 2000s film, Lohan played high school student Cady Heron, who befriends a group of popular classmates – Gretchen Wieners (played by Chabert), Karen Smith (played by Seyfried) and Regina George (played by McAdams). However, as Cady gets close to the elite girl group, referred to as “The Plastics,” she makes multiple attempts to bring Regina’s high school status down.

The premise for the new movie is exactly the same, with a few songs from the movie’s Broadway adaptation that was also written by Fey and premiered in 2017.

Walmart’s advertisement begins with Chabert reprising her role as Gretchen, as she could be seen picking up her daughter from school – in order to mock a scene from Mean Girls when Regina picks Cady up to go shopping. “Get in sweetie, we’re going deal shopping,” she quipped.

In the background, Lohan could be heard reprising her role as Cady, while making a reference to one of “The Plastics” rules about wearing a certain colour to school. “At North Shore, some things never change,” she said. “On Wednesdays, we still wear pink.”

The advertisement went on to show Seyfried reprising her role as Karen, with a reiteration of her notorious weather report in Mean Girls. “Karen Smith here with the weather,” she said. “There’s a 30 per cent chance that it’s already Wednesday.”

In the clip, Cady then revealed that she was now a guidance counsellor at her old high school, where she’s “still getting schooled”. She then tried to use an iconic word from Mean Girls, “grool” – a combination of great and cool – with two high school students, who appeared confused.

The ad switched to a shot of Gretchen watching her daughter and their friends filming a dance video, before the mother responded with one of her signature lines in the movie. “This is going to be so fetch!” she said, before her child hit back with: “Stop trying to make fetch happen, Mom. It’s not going to happen.”