The new ‘Mean Girls’ trailer is here. And fans of the original movie are torn

The new Plastics have arrived and they brought a few familiar faces with them.

On Nov. 8, Paramount Pictures released the trailer for its upcoming “Mean Girls” movie, out January 2024, that will reintroduce Regina George and company to a new generation 20 years after the original movie hit theaters.

The new 'Mean Girls' movie is a musical

The movie, which is a film adaptation of the Broadway show “Mean Girls” based on Tina Fey’s 2004 teen comedy, will be a musical. Singer and actor Reneé Rapp will take on the role of the infamous queen bee Regina George for the second time. She previously played the leader of The Plastics (the name for a cliquey group of girls in the storyline) on Broadway.

“This isn’t your mother’s ‘Mean Girls,’” text at the beginning of the trailer warns fans. The clip then shows new student Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) meeting Regina and learning about the cliques at their high school. Cady also falls for classmate Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), who happens to be Regina’s ex-boyfriend.

After eating lunch alone in the bathroom, Cady bonds with fellow outcasts Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey) and the trio come up with a plan to help Cady become a member of The Plastics: Regina, Gretchen (Bebe Wood) and Karen (Avantika Vandanapu).

'Mean Girls' cameos to look out for

Elements from the original film, like the “Burn Book” and Cady’s scary Halloween costume, make appearances in the trailer as well as some stars from the 2004 flick, including Fey and Tim Meadows. Fey also wrote the screenplay for the 2024 screenplay and she produced the film with Lorne Michaels.

Although the clip shows glimpses of musical numbers, it doesn’t actually include any snippets of the characters singing. Instead, Olivia Rodrigo’s “Get Him Back!” blasts in the background as Cady, Janis and Damian plot to take Regina down.

The trailer ends with "Emily in Paris" star Ashley Park, who played Gretchen in the Broadway production, making a cameo as the school’s French teacher.

Jon Hamm, Jenna Fischer, Busy Philipps also star in the movie.

What fans think of the trailer

The trailer immediately trended on social media and some fans had strong reactions to the first look at the 2024 version of the popular coming-of-age film.

Many were confused why the trailer did not showcase any of the songs from the musical.

“I’m surprised the trailer doesn’t feature any aspect of this being a musical, since u know, that’s the main difference in this version,” one person commented on YouTube.

Another asked, “How can you make a trailer for the mean girls musical without a single song from the musical?”

Still, many fans said they were looking forward to seeing the adaptation.

One praised Rapp and said the actor “is so perfect as regina, keeps the original feel of the character but makes it her own.

“Love that lady!!!” they added.

Over on X, formerly known as Twitter, the mixed reactions continued and the trailer gained over 5 million views.

“They lowkey should make it more clear this is a musical before they start getting mean girls 2 allegations that they can’t beat,” one fan said.

One person put their spin on one of Cady’s quotes from the original film and joked, “The songs do not exist!”

Multiple social media users were confused, and slightly insulted, by the trailer’s opening tagline.

Writer Kimberly Nicole Foster tweeted, “I cannot tell you how triggered I am by the “this isn’t your mother’s mean girls.” YOUR MOTHER???? YOUR MOTHER???!!!!”

Some seemed to be unaware that the movie is an adaptation of the Broadway show and questioned why it needed to be remade.

“So you made Mean Girls from the creators of Mean Girls that tells the story of Mean Girls like it was told by Mean Girls with all the same characters from Mean Girls in an all new Mean Girls, with the same exact plot as the Original Mean Girls......Ladies and Gents we have an L,” one person tweeted.

Another wrote, “Walmart commercial looked better,” referring to members of the original cast recently reuniting for a holiday ad.

But, others were optimistic. “I’ll give them this: busy philipps and renee rapp as mother and daughter is absolutely perfect casting,” one person tweeted.

Fans will have to wait a couple months to hear the catchy Broadway songs and see if the movie lives up to its high expectations.

When is the new 'Mean Girls' movie out?

Expect it in theaters on Jan. 12, 2024.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com