Diablo Cody has finished the Jennifer’s Body sequel script and says it’ll explore why Megan Fox’s Jennifer deserves sympathy. Cody says she finally got to dig into the side of Jennifer that most people skip past.
“We’re doing a sequel to [Jennifer’s Body] imminently, and I felt like, in the new movie, I was able to explore even more why Jennifer is sympathetic,” she told the Petticoat Revolution podcast, calling the script “done” and the project “1000% happening.”
Her read on the character pushes against the “mean girl” shorthand the 2009 cult film left behind. “There is absolutely, to me, a loneliness and a poignancy to that character that people don’t always recognise,” she said.
She described Jennifer as isolated, lonely and insecure, pointing to the moments people forget: “Everybody remembers Jennifer when she’s like, ‘I am a god’ or when she’s at her most radiant and at her most powerful, but people forget about these moments in the movie where she’s a shell of herself. She’s just exsanguinated, almost. And to me, Megan [Fox] played both of those sides of Jennifer so well.”
The original was a critical and commercial flop when it came out, its failure often pinned on a campaign aimed at teenage boys to cash in on Fox’s “Transformers” fame.
Cody says this time feels different: “Everyone gets it. They know what it is; they love the first movie. We know who this is for [and] how we’re gonna market it.”
Fox, Amanda Seyfried and director Karyn Kusama have been reported as returning, though none has confirmed a signed deal on the record. No studio announcement, title beyond “Jennifer’s Body 2,” release date or plot premise has been set.
