It still blows our minds that the original Mean Girls came out in 2004 and it's been 20 years since we first visited North Shore High School.
The North Shore doors are open once more and a new generation of Plastics have come to rule the school — but this next generation didn't forget their forebearers. Now that the musical adaptation of Mean Girls is officially out in the world (released in theaters today, January 12), we've gotten some truly adorable glimpses of the 2024 cast posing with their 2004 counterparts.
Cady Heron, 2004 and 2024
First up: Cady Heron, our heroine. Spider-Man star Angourie Rice, who took over the role from Lindsay Lohan, posed on the pink carpet of the NYC premiere with Lohan, who made a surprise appearance at the event on January 8. True to character, Rice wore a pale apricot pink, but Lohan ditched Cady's Plastics wardrobe in favor of a sleek black Alexandre Vauthier gown.
Karen Smith meets Karen Shetty
Avantika, who took over the role of bubbly, ditzy Karen in the musical film, referenced one of Karen's most iconic moments alongside the OG Karen, Amanda Seyfried, with both of them grabbing their breasts a la Karen's line about predicting the weather with her chest. “Mother is a Karen,” she wrote on Instagram, posting two pics with Seyfried.
Avantika tells Teen Vogue that Karen was always her favorite character: “It's very difficult for me to glamorize cruelty in film, so Karen was easily my favorite. I thought there was something really pure and beautiful about watching somebody retain how kind of a person they are despite their circumstances.”
Instagram content
Damian Hubbard, 2004 and 2024
Broadway star Jaquel Spivey, who plays the 2024 version of Damian, grabbed a pic with Daniel Franzese, who originated the role in the 2004 film, with Spivey wearing a rich purple set and Franzese in a gorgeous silver moto jacket.
This isn't the first time the original cast has revisited their Mean Girls roles; it's pretty obvious that the entire Mean Girls experience is something they treasure even 20 years later.
Lohan, Seyfried, Franzese, and Lacey Chabert, AKA Gretchen Weiners, filmed Walmart Black Friday commercials in fall 2023 that also served as mini-reunions. (Rajiv Surendra, who played Kevin Gnapoor, also briefly popped up in the ads.) “It was so nice being back together after all these years. It was great catching up with everyone," Lohan told People. “It was wonderful to spend the day with Amanda and Lindsay, and it was so much fun getting to reminisce and be together again,” Chabert shared at the time.
One original cast member hasn't popped up, but that doesn't mean it won't happen. (Fingers crossed.) Rachel McAdams, who played Queen Bee Regina George in the ‘04 movie, hasn’t made a comeback to the Mean Girls universe like her costars.
“I guess I wasn’t that excited about doing a commercial, if I’m being totally honest. A movie sounded awesome, but I’ve never done commercials, and it just didn’t feel like my bag,” McAdams told Variety of her absence from the commercial. "Also… I didn’t know that everyone was doing it. I would, of course, always love to be part of a Mean Girls reunion and hang with my Plastics, but yeah, I found that out later.” Someone get Rachel and Reneé Rapp on the phone! That would be so fetch.
