That Surprise Cameo In The New Mean Girls Included An OG Reference
The whole theater cheered at this moment.
Spoiler alert: This post contains spoilers for the ending of 2024’s Mean Girls.
Unsurprisingly, the new take on Mean Girls is packed full of references and callbacks for fans of the original movie. But nobody saw the biggest throwback to the 2004 comedy coming. In the final moments of the musical film, North Shore’s initial transfer-student-turned-it-girl made her grand reentrance into the Mean Girls universe. And Lindsay Lohan’s cameo included a subtle wink for the Mean Girls superfans.
As Cady’s climactic moment at the Mathlete state championships arrives, the movie takes a very meta turn. Turns out, the moderator for the competition is none other than the original Cady herself: Lindsay Lohan. And the moment only got more self-referential when Lohan’s character announced that this was the second time the competition has ever had to go to a tiebreaker — a knowing callback to how her version of Cady was part of the first tiebreaker question.
Lohan’s part was brief, but hugely impactful for moviegoers, especially since the actor has been vocal about not wanting to be in the musical adaptation. “I heard something about it being a movie musical and I was like, ‘Oh no,’” Lohan remarked to her Mean Girls co-star Amanda Seyfried in November 2022. “We can’t do that. It has to be the same tone.” Seyfried agreed that it wouldn’t feel the same if the OG Plastics came back in the project.
But Lohan has clearly changed her tune since then. Even before 2024’s Mean Girls first hit screens, she surprised fans by showing up at its premiere event, reuniting with creator and co-star Tina Fey as well as passing on the plastic tiara to the new cast, including Angourie Rice as Cady Heron for a new generation.
Lohan wasn’t the only celeb cameo in the reimagined Mean Girls. Various social media montages bring TikTok stars like Chris Olsen into the North Shore drama. Even Megan Thee Stallion pops up a couple of times to react to all of Regina’s viral antics. Megan can also be heard in the end credits, as her collaboration with Reneé Rapp “Not My Fault” plays.
Clearly, when it comes to the amount of star power in the Mean Girls universe, the limit does not exist!
