Diablo Cody is dead set on a ‘Jennifer’s Body’ sequel—there’s just one thing in her way

It’s time to resurrect Jennifer’s Body…again. Diablo Cody’s sapphic cult classic has gradually accrued a massive following, so a revival should be a dead certainty, right?

Cody, at least, is up for it. While promoting her uber-campy upcoming film Lisa Frankenstein, Cody looked back on her previous forays into camp horror with Bloody Disgusting’s Boo Crew podcast.

Her first turn at horror was Jennifer’s Body, a feature-length inversion on the final girl trope. It follows the story of Jennifer (Megan Fox), a popular high school girl, and her less popular best friend Needy (Amanda Seyfried). After a touring band mistakes Jennifer for a virgin and sacrifices her to the devil to secure their success, Jennifer revives as a succubus and wreaks havoc on the male population of her suburban town. Along the way, she and Needy navigate the fine line between hero worship and desire.

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When the film first released in 2009, cult status was the furthest thing from Cody’s mind. Jennifer’s Body had big shoes to fill, coming on the heels of her previous hit, Juno. But the stark tonal difference between the two films (along with the studio’s decision to market exclusively to teen boys) led to a chilly box office reception.

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The Cult Appeal of “Jennifer’s Body” is Real

Watching Jennifer lure a buff jock into the woods with her cunning sexuality to then tear him apart limb from limb did not scare me, it made me feel powerful.

The film has since undergone a reappraisal—not only for its feminist themes but for not shying away from its sapphic overtones.

“It’s gotten progressively happier for me,” Cody said. “At first I was like, I was excited about it obviously, but I was also a little bit salty because I remember thinking, well where was this audience when the movie came out. It was a critical, commercial failure.”

“I was pretty humiliated to be perfectly honest with you. It was a rough experience having that movie come out. It was rough for me, it was rough for Megan [Fox]… [then] people started suddenly talking about it like it was a good movie, which I had thought all along.”

The Boo Crew’s hosts broach the topic of a continuation, given there’s now an audience for it. “YES! I wanna do a sequel,” Cody said. “I am not done with Jennifer’s Body. I just need to find… I need to partner with people who believe [in it] as much as I do and that hasn’t really happened yet. I need someone to believe in it who has a billion dollars.”

For any other film, a sequel over 15 years late sounds like a bad idea, if not a shameless cash grab. But for Jennifer’s Body, it makes sense. The film was ahead of its time, and in a post-MeToo world, the film’s themes are more relevant than ever.

We’ll see how her latest film, Lisa Frankenstein, ties in these themes when it premieres on February 9. Check out the trailer below.

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