Millennials, Rejoice: Freaky Friday 2 Is Officially In The Works
Get ready for an even freakier Friday.
When you think of iconic sci-fi fantasy, Freaky Friday is likely the last movie on your mind. But Disney’s 2003 remake of the classic story has become pretty seminal in its own right. Whether you know the film’s most iconic lines by heart (“Oh, I’m like the Crypt-Keeper!”) or recognize its importance to the body-swap subgenre, Freaky Friday is a hard film to forget.
Still — and not to make anyone feel old — there’s an entire generation that only has a faint understanding of the film’s impact. Fortunately, the same might also be said for the millennials who first saw Jamie Lee Curtis switch bodies with Lindsay Lohan 21 years ago. Their Freaky Friday was one of many: The story has been repackaged for one generation after another, from its first film adaptation in 1976 to a musical in 2016. A 2020s reboot would effectively be a no-brainer, but Disney is actually going the sequel route instead, reuniting Curtis and Lohan after two decades apart.
Reports of a Freaky Friday sequel comes from The Hollywood Reporter. Curtis and Lohan are currently in negotiations to reunite; seeing as the pair have been vocal about reprising their roles for years, we might not have to wait long for an official announcement. Curtis has shared a few promising updates via Instagram, including a selfie with Lohan, and another with the respective director and writer of Freaky Friday 2.
Freaky Friday fans will get to catch up with Anna and Tess, decades after their fateful switch.
Nisha Ganatra (Welcome to Chippendales, The High Note) is attached to direct, taking over for Freaky Friday’s Mark Waters. The script for the sequel was penned by Dollface creator Jordan Weiss, and THR reports that the story will take “a multigenerational approach.”
Each film in the Freaky Friday franchise is designed to appeal to a new generation of teens. For all the nostalgia fueling this sequel, Disney would be silly to focus it exclusively on Curtis and Lohan’s characters. Freaky Friday 2 will follow a swap between Lohan’s Anna and her own teenaged daughter — and they won’t be the only ones trading places.
Entertainment Weekly recently gleaned plot details from Ganatra’s Instagram story, which shared an open casting call for a new batch of characters. The Freaky Friday team is already looking to cast the role of Harper, Anna’s 14-year-old daughter. She’s sharp-witted tomboy who’s “in a bit of a mood” because her mom is about to marry a British restauranteur. That she’ll be swapping bodies with Anna on the eve of her wedding is a beat-for-beat remix of 2003’s Freaky Friday — but the sequel could also see Tess switching with Lily, Harper’s future step-sister.
The Freaky Friday sequel could rehash the events of the 2003 film — but with a “multi-generational” twist.
EW goes long on potential plot details revealed in the audition sides, but it’s not clear whether they’re actually a part of Weiss’ script. Disney itself is notoriously cagey with details about upcoming projects, so there’s a chance that the true plot remains under wraps.
Whatever story Weiss and Ganatra go with, it’s set to be the latest in a growing trend. Millennials are living through a renaissance of the IP they grew up with, from another Lohan classic, Mean Girls, to the upcoming Wizards of Waverly Place revival. Whether Freaky Friday 2 will justify its existence remains to be seen — but honestly, all we really want is another banger from Pink Slip.
