If there’s one thing in common between the 2025 movie calendar and the 2026 movie schedule, it’s that there’s plenty of reboots, remakes and legacy sequels of sorts. One of the biggest ones headed our way before summer’s end is Freakier Friday, complete with Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis and Chad Michael Murray. But Murray’s now hyping up and presenting another of his early aughts classics for a reboot: A Cinderella Story. And I’m pretty sold on his pitch.
While Murray has shared a wild idea for Freakier Friday‘s Jake that didn’t get as much love as his pitch for Cinderella Story 2. Parade’s TikTok posted his baseline premise for what became of Sam Montgomery and Austin’s modern-day take on the classic fairy tale. He believed things weren’t all happy endings, as he said:
But I had mentioned a Cinderella Story reboot, and I think the way that I would do it would be: as love does in high school, it doesn’t work out most of the time. You know, they’ve gone separate ways.
It’s a fair and realistic angle! I love the original but the reality of the two of them sticking together is pretty slim, especially with all that was pit against their relationship. A return to each other later in life does seem likely, after both have grown up and gained more perspective.
The One Tree Hill star went on to explain what the two may be up to today. He believed Ames would be a teacher at the high school, Montgomery would have a family but no partner and their lives would re-intersect through her kids. From there, he thought there could be a double Cinderella storyline, saying:
They’ve had their lives, you know, maybe my character would be a teacher at this point, like an English teacher back at the school. And maybe, Hilary Duff’s character got married, had kids. It didn’t work out. And now her daughter happens to be in my class. And you do like a dual Cinderella story, where she’s gonna go and she’s a little shy and she doesn’t fit in. And he nurtures that, and then comes across with her and blah, blah, blah.
In the realm of the world, I think that this could naturally play well in the two-decadeish since we last saw the high school sweethearts. With a lot of these revisitings, in my opinion, plenty of them feel too forced. Sam and Austin could’ve easily grown away from each other during college only to come face to face again and re-open the past.
The Sullivan’s Crossing actor also pointed out there’s a solid fan base for movies like this, Freakier Friday not to mention The Devil Wears Prada 2. Each new generation inevitably comes to find these titles and falls in love with at least a few, so why not revisit the world. Murray concludes the thought by saying movies like this are well made and should have the opportunity to be re-explored:
There’s an audience for a lot of those movies that were out there. And Cinderella Story stands the test of time. Still today, young girls are watching it all the time. And every time it’s on, I’m sitting there going ‘You know what? They did a great job with this film.’ Hats off to everybody.
Many of the flicks that came out around the same time as A Cinderella Story still stand to this day, with a growing fan base. So, to me, I hope it’s a matter of time for this idea, or something related to it gets greenlit. But, as a member of the OG targeted audience, I don’t think I’d never not advocate for a resurgence (literally still wishing for the scrapped Lizzie McGuire reboot to regain traction).
Let’s just hope Murray continues to present his fun A Cinderella Story pitch and so he can help spark a Duffassaince.
