Mean Girls, the movie based on the musical based on the movie, gets its first trailer

The first trailer for the movie adaptation of the Mean Girls musical has dropped, though its original songs are surprisingly absent.

You might not be aware that Mean Girls received a musical adaptation back in 2017, but it did, and it’s still going. So it would be especially understandable if you didn’t know that a movie based on that musical is coming out January 12 next year. Well, now you know! And you can even watch the first trailer for it below, complete with Olivia Rodrigo’s Get Him Back as a backing track. Which, to be clear, is a bit of an odd choice – we can see people dancing in the trailer, but there’s no hint of the stage show’s actual musical numbers. Hell, one track (simply called Sexy) also had a viral moment on TikTok, so the lack of attempt to capitalise on that feels like a strange miss.

In terms of casting, Angourie Rice is playing Cady Heron, originally played by Lindsay Lohan, and Reneé Rapp is returning from the stage show as Regina George, who was played by Rachel McAdams in the 2004 film. Tina Fey, writer on the original film, has penned the screenplay this one too, and is returning as Ms. Norbury, along with Tim Meadows as Principal Duvall. But they appear to be the only returning cast members, for some reason. Auliʻi Cravalho and Jaquel Spivey are taking over the roles of Janis and Damian respectively.

Given the era that we’re in, it’s also not a surprise that this take on Mean Girls was originally slated to release on the streaming service Paramount+, but clearly whoever decided to give it a theatrical release feels like Means Girls will be relevant to anyone under the age of 30. The trailer does note this isn’t your mother’s Mean Girls, though, so hey, maybe it’ll manage to appeal to this generation of teens.