Why It’s the Perfect Time for a Jennifer’s Body Sequel (or Prequel)

While the horror film Jennifer’s Body was met by a lukewarm reception when it was first released in 2009, it has undergone a renaissance of sorts in recent years. People have realized that behind the inaccurate marketing of the movie lies a campy, yet powerful, story about two teenage girls whose relationship is forever changed by a group of young men seeking power. There are a few things, like certain lines of dialogue, that haven’t necessarily aged well in the 15 years since the film’s release, but overall the movie has been reclaimed as a queer horror classic.

Alongside people giving Jennifer’s Body another chance are those also seeking to give one of the film’s stars, Megan Fox, her long overdue flowers. Not just for her performance in this movie, but also to try and make up for all of the unjust hate and sexism hurled her way around the time the film premiered. Fox talked about Jennifer’s Body in a 2021 interview with the Washington Post, saying that “I don’t think it’s a hard movie to make a sequel to,” when asked if she would be up for returning to this story, “I mean, they should make it into a TV series. That would be cool.”

And Fox isn’t the only one up for a return to Devil’s Kettle. During press for her new film Lisa Frankenstein, Jennifer’s Body writer, Diablo Cody, told Inverse that she “would love to do a sequel or a prequel. I don’t know if I’d reboot the actual movie. I love the film as it is, but in that world, I would absolutely love to do something else.”

However, despite the film’s re-evaluation, Cody has still encountered road blocks trying to get a Jennifer’s Body TV project off the ground. “I have been actively trying to pursue that for years,” Cody told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s tricky because there are a lot of people out there with successful existing IP trying to get [projects made], and Jennifer’s Body, when it came out, was not a hit. So on paper, it’s actually a difficult sell because people say, ‘Well, the movie wasn’t a success.’ And I say, ‘But there’s an interest in it now. It’s found an audience, so let’s do this!’”

During the red carpet premiere for Lisa Frankenstein, Cody even told Deadline, “I’m hoping that the fact that a lot of people have been asking me about [a Jennifer’s Body sequel] this week might be the final push that I need to actually make it happen.”

Even though Jennifer’s Body does have a somewhat definitive ending – Anita “Needy” Lesnicki (Amanda Seyfried) has killed her best friend Jennifer (Megan Fox) to stop her from killing people, and after escaping from the asylum she’s been locked up in, takes out her revenge on Low Shoulder, the band that sacrificed Jennifer’s soul to become famous – there are still plenty of questions left unanswered.

A sequel film or TV series could follow Needy who, still infused with some of Jennifer’s powers after their fight, uses her abilities to help other teen girls avoid Jennifer’s fate. Or a prequel could tell another story where the supernatural finds its way to Devil’s Kettle. Cody has even laid the groundwork for a Jennifer’s Body cinematic universe, declaring at the premiere that Lisa Frankenstein is set in the same world as Jennifer’s Body. But whatever Cody’s vision may be, it’s clear that fans still have an appetite for more from this world and these characters.

Personally, I discovered Jennifer’s Body 10 years after its release, but just in time for the movie’s resurgence. I had only recently come out as bisexual to my parents, and was still discovering what that meant for me as a young woman in Oklahoma. Only vaguely aware of the film’s premise, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Jennifer’s Body wasn’t the sleazefest it was marketed to be, but was instead a story about two young queer women in a small town trying to make sense of their co-dependent friendship. 

Yes, Fox does become a succubus, but only because a band decides that murdering Jennifer for a blood sacrifice is an easy price to pay for fame. After her transformation, she makes a point to only kill men, using her newfound powers as a way to enact revenge for what was taken from her.

Jennifer’s Body isn’t perfect by any means, but it uniquely captures the hells of being a young woman in a world where nothing we do is ever good enough for the male gaze. We’re both too queer yet too vanilla, too skinny and too fat, wear too much makeup yet don’t wear enough. 

Despite the promise of a better future brought on by the #MeToo movement, we still live in a world where a man found liable of sexual assault can run for president, a man accused of sexual assault can be appointed to a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court, and women have to jump through an absurd number of hoops just to be believed. Jennifer’s Body may have been made long before this movement became popular, but its story of revenge is timeless and just as relevant as ever.

With Lisa Frankenstein forging a path forward for an expansion of this supernatural world that was brought to life by Diablo Cody and Karyn Kusama so many years ago, it’s the perfect time for a sequel or prequel to Jennifer’s Body. Cody wants “so badly for this to happen” and if she could she would “greenlight it tomorrow.” A continuation of this story is as much a dream for the people who created it as it is for the fans, so hopefully it’s only a matter of time before we all get to go back to Devil’s Kettle.

Lisa Frankenstein opens in theaters on Feb. 9.