At North Shore High School, some things never change. A new generation of Plastics are still making everyone wear pink on Wednesdays, and they also love to shop! In the first of many Black Friday commercials this season, the Mean Girls cast had a mini-reunion as they helped Walmart promote some seasonal deals. Lacey Chabert (Gretchen Wieners), Lindsay Lohan (Cady Heron), Amanda Seyfried (Karen Smith), Daniel Franzese (Damian Leigh), and Rajiv Surendra (Kevin Gnapoor) reprised their Mean Girls roles as the commercial portrayed a 2023 version of North Shore High.
But longtime Mean Girls fans quickly realized that the queen bee herself, Regina George (played by Rachel McAdams) was nowhere to be seen. So, why wasn’t McAdams part of this commercial with her Mean Girls co-stars? According to Page Six, all of the movie’s lead actors were invited to appear in the commercial but McAdams turned down the opportunity.
So why did the OG Regina George turn down the chance to reprise her role in the Walmart commercial? During a Dec. 20 interview with Variety, McAdams revealed that commercials just aren’t her thing.
“I wasn’t that excited about doing a commercial if I’m being totally honest,” the Notebook actress said. “A movie sounded awesome, but I’ve never done commercials, and it just didn’t feel like my bag. Also…I didn’t know that everyone was doing it. I would, of course, always love to be part of a Mean Girls reunion and hang with my plastics, but yeah, I found that out later.”
McAdams went on to share that she was close to making a Regina cameo in the upcoming Mean Girls movie.
“Tina and I sort of dabbled with a few ideas, but it was tough to make it all work in the end,” she said. “I was really down for whatever she wanted to do. I think the direction it went in will be fantastic and I cannot wait to see it.”
Though Regina George didn’t make a cameo in the commercial, I’m still here for this nostalgic moment, and I can’t think of a more fetch way to kick off the holiday season.
In the commercial, Lacey Chabert is now one of the plastics’ moms. She yells to the girls, “Get in losers! We’re going deal shopping!” from a sports car filled with shopping bags. One iconic detail was the car’s license plate, STRUDLGRL, which referenced a scene from Mean Girls when Damian revealed to Cady that Gretchen’s father invented Toaster Strudel.
The iconic “Jingle Bell Rock” performance also made a return in the commercial, with Chabert acting as the “stage mom” while filming the number and imitating the choreography from the audience — just like Amy Poehler did in the movie.
Lindsay Lohan returned as the guidance counselor of North Shore, where she’s trying to understand Gen Z’s version of cliques. “It was so nice being back together after all these years. It was so great catching up with everyone,” Lohan shared with People magazine on Nov. 1. “We think fans are going to be super excited to see us after all these years. I know we are excited for everyone to see what we’ve all been up to,” added Franseze.
This Walmart commercial is far from the first revival of Mean Girls in recent years. In 2018, the musical adaptation of Mean Girls hit Broadway, and a movie remake of the musical starring Reneé Rapp will debut in theaters on Jan. 12, 2024.