A revival of a beloved, iconic film? Groundbreaking, as Meryl Streep’s “The Devil Wears Prada” character Miranda Priestly would say.
But screenwriters, both those returning from some of the aughts’ most beloved films, as well as the writers of new franchise editions for subsequent modern installments, are setting out to do just that: Make a sequel that’s not only great, but necessary.
“Freakier Friday” is the latest film to get the legacyquel spin — and perhaps one of the first to be critically acclaimed as it hits theaters. Of course, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” already has high-brow power: While “Freakier Friday” boasts one Academy Award winner (Jamie Lee Curtis) among its ensemble, “Prada” is led by four Oscar nominees, with Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep both having won statues. (And Streep is reprising her “Prada” role, which she was also nominated for.)
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The productions of “Freakier Friday” and “The Devil Wears Prada 2” have ignited viral internet fandom, with “Freakier Friday” in part landing a theatrical release due to the online support that the announcement of the sequel generated.
“Freakier Friday” being greenlit further seemed to open the floodgates for more 2000s nostalgic revivals: “Princess Diaries 3,” “Bend It Like Beckham 2,” “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” “The Holiday,” and even “Air Bud” are all getting millennial-centric installments. And that’s not even including series sequels to ’90s properties such as “And Just Like That” (RIP) and “Clueless,” which “Freakier Friday” scribe Jordan Weiss is writing for Peacock.
Are studios mining their existing films with 15th, 20th, and 25th anniversaries in mind, or are screenwriters pitching these revivals in droves based on their own childhood cinematic fandoms? Why is there this seemingly sudden push for rom-coms, or in millennial speak, girly pop films?
And how much does “Barbie” have to do with all of it?
IndieWire spoke with “The Devil Wears Prada 2″ screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, “Freakier Friday” screenwriter Jordan Weiss, and Elyse Hollander, who shares a co-story-by credit with Weiss on the “Freaky Friday” sequel, to unpack the nostalgic trend of 2000s films being brought into 2025 and beyond — and detail which early 21st century films they’re each vying to revive.
The following interviews have been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
IndieWire: The overwhelming influx of 2000s films being turned into franchises has really marked a trend in recent years. Why do you think these millennial high concept favorites are getting newfound attention? Is this led by the studios or the creatives?
Jordan Weiss: It was a combination of legacy producers [Kristin Burr and Andrew Gunn from the 2003 “Freaky Friday”] and millennial executives [such as Disney SVP of development Allison Erlikhman, who is also working on “Princess Diaries 3”] and a millennial screenwriter, who were all like, “We either love this movie because we worked on it” or “we were children when it came out and are obsessed with every part of it.” I think [Allison] being of this generation and having that close tie made her such an asset as a studio executive working on this.”
I think these revivals come about in a lot of different ways. Sometimes it’s me picking up the phone and saying, “Hey, I have an idea for an interpretation of this piece of IP,” and sometimes it’s a studio saying, “These two actors have remained in each other’s lives and and are still friends and love each other and want to make another one of these because they’ve stayed so close over 20 years.” And then they find some fresh voices to bring in and help them work on that.
Aline Brosh McKenna: The desire to do this [“The Devil Wears Prada 2“] again came from the creative team. It didn’t come from the studio. The only reason to do something like this is if you have something you want to say, something creative. I’ve certainly been approached with other remakes that, in other contexts, didn’t make sense for me anyway. This was really coming from the folks on the creative team being the first ones coming together and wanting to continue this story.
I’ve talked to [“The Devil Wears Prada” director] David Frankel regularly over the last 20 years. A couple of years ago, I started saying to him, “You know, I actually think that there is a sequel here because the world that these characters live in is changing so dramatically and so rapidly. I really feel like there could be something there.” We just started mildly chatting about it, but really, I had no expectation and I was off doing other things.
McKenna was the showrunner for “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and made her directorial debut with rom-com “Your Place or Mine.”
Aline, I know that in the 20 years since “The Devil Wears Prada” was released, some actors did publicly shut down the idea of a sequel.
Hathaway famously said in 2022 that she wasn’t sure the film could even warrant any other installments due to the death of the print magazine industry: “I don’t know if there can be [a sequel]. I just think that movie was in a different era. Now everything’s gone so digital and that movie is centered around the concept of producing a physical thing and it’s just, it’s just very different.”
McKenna: They all said no [for years]. None of us really felt like it made sense earlier, and then all of a sudden, it really did make sense.
So, why now? What made those no’s become yes’s?
McKenna: One of the original producers of the movie, Wendy Finerman, said, “I’ve spoken to Meryl. If you have something to pitch her, she would like to hear it.” That is really what started the process. The most important consideration was figuring out what a story would be, to have a story that would hold up. The only reason to do something like this [a sequel] is if you have something you want to say, something creative. I’ve certainly been approached with other remakes that in other contexts didn’t make sense for me. I felt like this was really about the folks on the creative team from the first one coming together again and wanting to continue this story. And having the original cast together was so important.
For “Freakier Friday,” as a screenwriter joining the franchise with the legacy sequel, was there added pressure since the core original cast was returning, too?
Hollander: It’s a big risk for everybody involved to come back. You don’t want to ruin the legacy, you want add to it. I was like, “I cannot be responsible for ruining a beloved film and adding to a cash grab, schlock pile that would be once direct to DVD.”
Weiss: I don’t know, I think there’s a lot of pressure on every film to be great because everybody working on it cares about it a lot, whether it’s streaming or theatrical or of any size, but I think that there are, different challenges and different things that are fun about joining a franchise. No matter what IP you’re adapting, whether it’s a comic book or a legacy sequel, you’re still opening a blank document and being tasked with creating an original new story, whether that’s an original story inspired by or including characters from the past or inspired by or including characters from your own personal history. You’re making a new experience for the audience.
I really don’t feel as though I’m not being given the opportunity to be completely original and creative, even when I’m working as part of like big legacy titles. I feel like this is a privilege. You always want to honor where something came from, whether it came from my own personal heartbreak when I was 16 or whether it came from an amazing movie starring Lindsay Lohan from 2003.
There are things that are really fun about it when it’s an original, and there are also things that are really fun and special when it’s me getting brought into a group project that’s existed for 25 years or 30 years. Whether it’s original or building off of a piece of IP is of secondary importance to me.
There have been some backlash about there being “too many” legacy sequels announced. Do you think this is a gendered criticism as all of the films receiving their flack are women-led rom-coms?
McKenna: I don’t think [the criticism is] gendered. I think, from what I can tell, people are really excited about a lot of these, and I know “Freakier Friday” is opening really soon. I really think it just boils down to the story you have to tell. We’re also experiencing our own sense of nostalgia and revisiting a film. I think that’s what we’re hoping to do for an audience, for them to have that feeling of a reunion, too.
Weiss: The thing that is funny to me is that there’s a lot of conversation now of like, “Oh, my God, everything’s a reboot, everything’s a sequel. I miss the ’90s and early 2000s when everything was original,” and I’m like, “Those were also all remakes.” There are probably so many movies that people don’t realize were actually movies from the ’30s or ’40s. I’m like, “Hollywood’s built on it.” Maybe we’re always re-innovating, but I have embraced it. I think that all of these stories are original, and you still are creating something new. I’ve really tried to be optimistic about the potential with that. If a cynical person wants to say that all [legacy sequels] come from the same cash grab, that’s just not my view of it. But maybe I’ve got rose colored glasses on.
Hollander: I think the rom-com genre has been everyone’s guilty pleasure, and we need to get rid of the guilt and just accept that it’s super fun and fantastic. And I’ve actually heard that in addition to whatever the online troll comments are, there also has been such a push for romance and a return to big, emotional movie star-driven films that are not about capes and explosions. I think “The Devil Wears Prada 2” is happening because you have huge movie stars [in it] as well.
McKenna: “Top Gun: Maverick” really showed that there was an interest in these [legacy sequels]. They really updated [Tom Cruise’s] character to reflect his age and his experience. To me, these don’t necessarily seem like cynical money grabs, which is how I think they’re often portrayed. I think often, as in our case, and as in the case of “Top Gun,” it stems from like a legitimate desire to see these characters again. And in the ’30s and ’40s, they routinely made tons of sequels, and there wasn’t an embarrassment about wanting to revisit beloved characters. The audience has asked for more of this and in this case, it just happened over such a long period of time.
Is this wave of 2000s fandom in Hollywood in part also due to “Barbie” making box office history? What happened to the pause of high concept rom-coms? Did that happen along with the condescension of the “chick flick” genre label?
Hollander: I think it’s realizing there’s still a marketplace for what I like to call DryBar movies. In the early days of DryBar [the salon], you’d go, you’d get a glass of champagne, you get your hair blown out. It was like a very female-centric space and they would have a movie playing, our favorite rom-coms like “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” “Bride Wars,” “He’s Just Not That into You,” “Never Been Kissed,” all those great movies. And then at a certain point, someone decided that it wasn’t commercial anymore.
McKenna: One of the reasons the fandom for [“The Devil Wears Prada”] and all of these movies is so enduring is because the culture was so much more focused on a few pieces. … I guess people call it the monoculture, but the audience [in the 2000s] wasn’t as fragmented. So a lot of people did see this movie when it came out, and then it had this amazing life on DVDs which don’t exist anymore, but that was a huge. That extended its life.
And then the deals that were made for it to be on TV. I mean, [“The Devil Wears Prada”] is always on TV. “Prada” and “27 Dresses” are on TV just so frequently, and the thing that people say to me the most is, “Oh, if that’s on, I’ll watch the whole thing.” It’s not just based on the quality of the movie itself, but also definitely based on a feeling. At the time [in the early 2000s], there was just more of a sense of bringing people together. Everybody watched the “Friends” finale, you know, and so those are all things that you could talk about in common.
I think, in a way, the popularity of these older movies has something to do with our longing to have something that cuts across the whole culture. I think that drives a lot of the interest and so it’s living on in the internet and on television. This one [“The Devil Wears Prada”] has lived on, but I also think it represents not just the nostalgia for this particular movie, but sort of a nostalgia for mass moviegoing and a common shared culture.
Fans of the respective original films have already made set photos for both “Freakier Friday” and “The Devil Wears Prada 2” go viral. “Freakier Friday” star and producer Jamie Lee Curtis slammed the leaked pictures in 2024, calling them an “intrusion … into the creative process of filmmaking.” What is your opinion?
Weiss: The parasocial relationship between fans and franchises is always interesting to me.
McKenna: We knew there would be a lot of interest. I personally hadn’t experienced this level of people coming out [to the set], but it’s the world we live in. In many ways, we’re speaking to a different world than we did in 2006. … It stems from like a legitimate desire to see these characters again. As long as everyone’s safe, what an honor that people are still interested.
How do you approach writing a legacy sequel? Did you always know you wanted to tap into early 2000s IPs?
Weiss: When I’m looking ahead in my career, it’s less about, “Do I want to reboot this specific title?” and more about deciding I want to do more rom-coms, I want to do more mother-daughter stories. Having the opportunity to do a big rom com that’s original, great, but if I have the opportunity to do a big rom-com that’s the remake of a beloved ’90s rom-com, also great. If someone is like, “Can you believe you’re working on another reboot?” I would be like, “This is was completely my original idea.” I think that’s the best way to utilize IP though is to have an independent, original concept and then having it be within the safe haven of an IP so studios can greenlight it.
I think there’s a lot of crossover with stuff. “Dollface” was wholly original, but it was taking inspiration from things like “Clueless.” Literally Brenda Song’s original character description was “Millennial Cher Horowitz” in the script. … I wish that there would have been more of an audience for “Dollface” to last 10 seasons, but I think ultimately like it’s easier to find an audience when you have IP.
Hollander: I think you can lean into some of those IP titles and use them in a sneaky way in to do something new. In a dream world, every movie could be an interesting small A24 Celine Song, like something that makes you question art in the world and your perspective, and I think there’s space for that.
After this interview was conducted, it was announced that Song is now also getting into the nostalgic reboot game with “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” which she is writing for Sony.
I think at the same time too, Hollywood has always been a business where you have to sell a product, whether it’s entertainment or joy or happiness or nostalgia. And it’s your job as the writer to slide in deeper themes that you want to explore. Like a four-way swap and with a blended family storyline across multiple generations [as the “Freakier Friday” plot], I could describe the movie in a way that sounds like an A24 film, like a body horror swap thing, and then you realize, “Oh wait, it’s Freaky Friday.” I feel like that’s when it’s really successful, when you’re not sure by the logline what shiny veneer marker it has on it.
Are there any other 2000s films you want to reboot?
Hollander: I’d love for the [’90s] “Charlie’s Angels” to come back. I’d love for “Bring It On” to return, especially with the rise of “Cheer” and the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders series. I’d love to see Kirsten Dunst reprising her role and, what does that look like 20 years later, when you’ve aged out of like being a performer or cheerleader? Kind of make it like an “F1” event that Brad Pitt had.
McKenna: I remember when I first came to Hollywood, I really wanted to remake “Cheaper by the Dozen” because it had been a really successful book and movie way, way back and nobody was interested. I was a baby writer and then that turned out to be a huge hit movie. I don’t even know if people connected it to the fact that it was a remake; it had to stand on its own.
Aline, would you more open to revisiting any of your past films now after returning to write “The Devil Wears Prada 2”? And if not, would you be OK with another writer taking on one of your IPs like with what happened with “Freakier Friday”?
McKenna: I tried to do a TV show with “27 Dresses,” but I haven’t quite gotten there yet. The wedding industry has just exploded since we made that movie. I mean, when I see what young people are going through now with weddings, that seems quaint. I think that’s primed for something. Out of the things I’ve written, I would say that’s the one. I’m not sure that there will be a “We Bought Another Zoo.”
“Freakier Friday” is currently in theaters. “The Devil Wears Prada 2” is expected in theaters May 2026. Both are Disney releases.
