You'd hardly know Mean Girls is a musical from its latest trailer
While the clip is chock-full of references to the original movie, not a single note is sung
If the original Mean Girls illustrated how nightmarish it was to be a teenage girl in 2004, the trailer for Tina Fey’s new Mean Girls proves without a shadow of a doubt that it is so much harder now. Lindsay Lohan’s Cady Heron certainly never had to contend with allegations of slut shaming over her Halloween costume or randomly passed-down judgment from TikTok star Chris Olsen. These girls would eat her alive.
While you oddly can’t tell from this trailer, the new film is an adaptation of Tina Fey’s 2017 Broadway musical of the same name. Perhaps in the spirit of the story, producers felt shamed out of shouting out—or referencing at all—that this is a movie musical after that whole Dear Evan Hansen fiasco put the genre out of fashion for a while. (The use of Olivia Rodrigo’s “get him back!” is a fun alternative, though.) Whatever the reason, they do have a whole roster of A-list musical talent on board, including Tony-nominated actor Jaquel Spivey as Damien, Moana’s Auli’i Cravalho as Janis, and Reneé Rapp, who also played the role on Broadway, as Regina.