The New “Mean Girls” Cast Looks Different Than the Original — and That’s the Point

The very first shot of the 2024 musical reimagining of “Mean Girls” is a vertical frame. Two characters, Janis (played by Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), film themselves singing a song that sets the stage for the story to follow. They’re troubadours for the TikTok set — and this is a “Mean Girls” for a new generation.

The Cady Heron, Regina George, and Aaron Samuels of the original film, released in 2004, had never seen an iPhone — those wouldn’t debut for another three years. “Instagram,” “Twitter,” and “Snapchat” would have sounded like gibberish. Karen was just a name, and Donald Trump was just a business mogul.

Twenty years later . . . well, things are different. We’ve seen not just a technological revolution, but a cultural one. More Americans have become more aware of how rampant racism and discrimination — from microaggressions to hate crimes — are in this country. And while we still have a long way to go, people have a greater understanding of the harm caused by failing to adequately represent a diversity of identities on screen.

In 2004, the original film did make jokes about racial stereotypes (“If you’re from Africa, why are you white?”), but it didn’t go so far as to cast a person of color in any of the main roles. (Actually, that was a joke in the original movie, too: Kevin G asks Janis if she’s Puerto Rican. “Lebanese,” answers Janis, played by Lizzy Caplan, who’s white.)

The new “Mean Girls” cast is notably more diverse than the original, and the cast tells POPSUGAR that they’re grateful for the ability to bring their characters into 2024 by integrating more of their individual identities.

“I got to bring a little bit of myself to the character,” says Bebe Wood, who plays Gretchen Wieners. “I was talking with [director Arturo Perez Jr.] and he was like, ‘Wait, I heard somewhere that you’re Latina . . . We should just add something in there.'”

The addition to the script was small — a single mention of her abuelito — but for Wood, the impact was huge. “I’ve never been able to play Cuban American before,” she says. “So it was exciting to add just a little nod to my heritage within the role.”

Avantika, who plays Karen Shetty in the new film, was similarly grateful to be able to embrace her background on screen. “It really meant a lot when . . . at the initial table read, [screenwriter Tina Fey] was like, ‘Is there anything about the name like Karen Smith that you want to change?'” Avantika says. “And I was like, ‘I’m South Indian, I’ve never gotten to play someone who’s openly South Indian, and I speak Telugu at home; would it be possible to bring in the last name from my culture?’ . . . And so we decided on Karen Shetty. That’s really special to me that [Fey] gave me the space and freedom to bring that.”

Karen isn’t the only character to get a new name: Janis Ian is now Janis ‘Imi’ike, reflective of Cravalho’s Hawaiian heritage. Cravalho wants to get to a place where diversity in film is the rule, rather than the exception. “Every film that I’m in, I get asked about: ‘Why is representation important in films?'” she says. “Thank you for asking me that question — but can we move on a little bit? A space that I’m trying to move out of is being asked always about, ‘How important is it to you to be the first pioneer?’ I am excited to open the doors and just break through. [But] I don’t want to be the first.”

This name-claiming is especially meaningful in a film where name-calling and misnaming cause so much harm. The Plastics, “fugly slut,” “dyke” (in the new version, updated to “pyro lez”): they’re all names and labels doled out like candy-cane grams, and the students of North Shore High feel the burn.