The New Mean Girls Changed Up These Iconic Lines & Characters
Choices were made...
When the new version of Mean Girls was first announced, nobody knew what to think about it. Is it a remake of the 2004 movie? An adaptation of the 2018 Broadway musical? A sequel, or some sort of follow-up? Well, it turns out, it’s a little bit of everything. The new movie retells the familiar story of transfer student Cady Heron’s rise to Plastics popularity under the tyrannical rule of Regina George, but this time around, a lot of the details are different.
Since an entire generation has grown up watching and rewatching Mean Girls, it’s pretty conspicuous when the new movie changes or leaves out some key plot points. After all, the 2004 comedy is famously one of the most quotable movies ever — of course fans are going to notice when Regina’s callous invitation, “Get in, loser,” isn’t followed by, “We’re going shopping.”
Many of the original movie’s most well-known quotes are either knowingly altered or totally transformed for a new generation. But the dialogue isn’t the biggest change. Here are the major ways the 2024 Mean Girls differentiates itself from its predecessor.
1. Cady’s dad doesn’t exist.
The Heron home is down one family member these days. The new version of Mean Girls reimagines Ms. Heron as a single mom, unlike in the original movie, where Cady’s parents were played by Ana Gasteyer and Neil Flynn.
2. Aaron isn’t so dumb.
In the 2004 movie, Aaron constantly gets poor grades in calculus, something Cady points out when she confesses to her scheme to get close to him. “I’m actually really good at math. You’re kinda bad a math,” she tells her crush.
But the new Aaron doesn’t seem so academically hopeless. He’s even in the AP Calculus class with Cady, even though he still can’t hold a candle to her when it comes to calculating limits.
3. Regina has a more complicated past with Janis.
For two decades, there have been theories about what really went wrong in Regina and Janis’ friendship. Regina’s insistence that her former friend is a lesbian, and that’s why they grew apart, has led some viewers to believe Regina may have seen Janis as more than just a friend in the past.
The new movie makes this speculation much more overt. It reveals that Regina and Janis cemented their friendship by trading stuffed animals with gay pride pins on them, and according to Damian, Regina even kissed Janis during a game of spin the bottle. But, the kiss was apparently only a ploy for Regina to get a boy’s attention.
4. The four-way call is gone.
Don’t hold out hope to hear Regina say, “Boo, you wh*re.” Not only is the quotable insult cut from the new movie, so is the entire four-way call scene in which Cady turns Gretchen and Karen against Regina by having them secretly listen in on her phone calls.
5. Coach Carr doesn’t hook up with students.
One of the best changes in the new movie is removing a storyline that really didn’t age well. The original Coach Carr was exposed for hooking up with at least two students: Trang Pak and Sun Jin Dinh. Thankfully, the only crime the new version of the school’s coach is guilty of is being a completely inept sexual education teacher.
6. Ms. Norbury is dating Principal Duvall.
It may have taken two decades, but Ms. Norbury finally got a happy ending. The new movie reveals that the chronically single math teacher has actually found romance with Principal Duvall. The revelation is extra special, since Tina Fey and Tim Meadows were the only two Mean Girls stars to reprise their roles in the new movie.
7. Cady, Janis, and Damian’s revenge plan is different.
The 2024 movie turns revenge into a full-blown party, but Janis and Damian have a different plan on how to bring down Regina George. Instead of cutting holes in her shirts, the trio douse Regina in water in front of the whole school. But of course, the result is still the same — everyone just starts rocking the “wet look” instead of tank tops with giant holes.
8. Various iconic lines are altered.
Longtime Mean Girls fans will count tons of changed or removed quotes from the original, like Regina’s mom updating her “cool mom” status for 2024: “I’m not a regular mom, I’m @coolmom with six O’s,” she declares. Some of Regina’s harshest insults are totally removed, like her climactic explosion in which she calls Cady “a homeschooled jungle freak who's a less hot version of me.”
9. Many songs are changed, or omitted.
The new movie also partially adapts the Mean Girls musical, but changes up some of the songs. Several original songs are cut from the movie, and some of the ones that did make it in are given to different characters. For instance, Damian sings the part in “Apex Predator” that Cady sings in the stage version, and while Aaron only briefly sings on stage, he gets no musical moment at all in the movie.
