Older Mean Girls fans warned to stop bringing ‘baggage’ to new film

Mean Girls 2024 has caused a stir among fans for a variety of reasons, be it Reneé Rapp’s press tour antics to the fact many didn’t realise it was a musical.

For clarity, this new movie is an adaptation of the Broadway musical, which was adapted from the 2004 hit film – starring Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams – which was inspired by a book called Queen Bees and Wannabes.

A slew of criticism has been aimed at the 2024 film, despite a solid 70% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, much seemingly for simply existing in the shadow of the previous film – which has 84%.

Interestingly, both films have a 66% audience score on the review aggregator but it seems the ‘ageist’ antics of new Regina George, Reneé, has caused further upset among older viewers.

Her interview, in which she jokes she is ‘ageist’ against millennial women, caused a lot of disdain and anger from the core viewership of the 2004 film who were already not happy with the reboot.

Costume designer Tom Broecker was anticipating the possibility of a backlash when he spoke to Metro.co.uk ahead of the film’s US launch.

Reneé has caused a little stir with her very different approach to Regina Georga (Picture: Paramount)

The characters have had a major shake-up to modernise the film (Picture: Jojo Whilden)

‘I would love people to approach this film with a fresh eye,’ he shared. ‘Although the characters have the same names, their lives are different in this film.’

Tom explained that ‘family situations’ and ‘wealth levels’ have been swapped around to ensure a cohesive story for this new twist in the beloved classic – which Tina Fey was still at the helm of.

He continued: ‘They are played by different actors who look different from the originals. There might be times the actors say dialogue similar to the original but I want people to understand this is not a copy.’

At every step of the way, the movie musical has had to fight against criticism levied by the internet, with complaints about certain characters not fitting their vision for the Plastics.

The original Plastics were played by Lacey Chabert, Rachel Mcadams, and Amanda Seyfried (Picture: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock)

Bebe Wood takes over as Gretchen while Avantika plays Karen in the new film (Picture: Jojo Whilden)

Reneé has previously shared how she was body-shamed on Broadway in the role (Picture: Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images)

The Sex Lives of College Girls actress was the focus of much criticism when the teaser images dropped last year, with some fans body-shaming her and ridiculing her outfits.

Reneé, 24, has previously shared how she developed an eating disorder after being body-shamed in Mean Girls on Broadway back in 2019 – where she also played Regina.

Tom explained how he was conscious of creating costumes that made the actresses ‘feel sexy’ rather than appealing to what older team members thought was sexy.

Costume designer Tom Broecker this people need to let go of ‘baggage'(Picture: Amy Sussman/Getty Images for CDGA)

The costumes garnered criticism when the teasers dropped (Picture: Paramount)

He vented: ‘I think there’s a big difference between what a 25-year-old feels sexy in and thinks is sexy and wants to wear versus say a 45-year-old person.I was very much like, “Okay, what do you guys feel?”

‘The 45-year-old moms would be like, “Oh my god, what is that?” And then the 25-year-old girl who just graduated from college thinks it’s amazing.

‘We have to go to them because this is supposed to be representative of them -not of what we might bring as our baggage as older adults.’

The costume designer added: ‘This is 2024. Not 2004. And the world is different and so should the visual look of these characters.’

This isn’t ‘your mum’s Mean Girls’ (Picture: Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images)

The focus was on making the cast comfortable as well as sexy (Picture: Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images)

That being said, Tom acknowledges the need to bring older fans along for the ride and teased: ‘I tried to Easter eggs things, there are moments here and there which fans might watch it [a few] times to pick up.

He did reveal that the Halloween party, in particular, is filled with nods to the 2004 version, and shared: ‘We specifically went through and we’re like let’s bring that guy back to our Halloween party so we’ve peppered some of the original Halloween looks.’

Tom added: ‘I watched the original like, 15 times, it holds up so well. It’s brilliant because the reality is, this is the life of high school.

‘It doesn’t matter whether it was 20 years ago or 40 years ago, or now. This is the way we treated each other in high school and it still is. No matter what, you get more than three people together, someone will become the queen bee.’

Mean Girls: The Musical is out now in UK cinemas and worldwide.

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‘This is 2024, not 2004.’