SPOILERS are forward for the ending of Freakier Friday.
Now that the Freakier Friday launch is right here, it’s time to start out unpacking all of the enjoyable developments to the characters within the sequel. Once I had the possibility to speak to Chad Michael Murray through the Los Angeles press junket for Freakier Friday, I requested the actor about one aspect regarding Jake that I had solely theorized may function unfinished enterprise after the primary film.
Within the newest of the 2025 film releases, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan as soon as once more play mom/daughter pair Tess and Anna Coleman. However this time round they swap our bodies with two youngsters (considered one of them being Anna’s daughter), who resolve to make use of their time as adults to interrupt up her upcoming marriage that might make them sisters. That brings Chad Michael Murray’s Jake again into the image, as a means to make use of Anna’s highschool sweetheart to interrupt them up. Right here’s what Murray mentioned concerning the improvement:
When initially [the sequel] got here to me, I sat down and I used to be speaking with Kristen Burr, considered one of our producers, and I simply mentioned, properly, ‘Let’s discuss Jake simply because it has been 22, 23 years. Like, what has he been doing?’ And in my head, I had simply at all times thought that he in all probability had a shrine to Tess sitting someplace in his home. That he had just a bit little bit of loopy simply type of tucked away within his coronary heart and he simply might by no means get that half out of his physique.
Within the hilarious file retailer scene that had been teased in the most recent trailer, Harper and Lily (who’re in Anna and Tess’s physique) attempt to flirt with Jake, however fairly than him nonetheless having the hots for his highschool sweetheart, he’s nonetheless blushing over Jamie Lee Curtis’ character. As Murray shared, he at all times imagined he was nonetheless secretly in love together with her, and even had a shrine devoted to her. As he continued in our interview:
And I simply cherished that about it, as a result of it doesn’t matter what, she’s simply cool. And even on the finish of the film when he says, ‘I see your mother, and I like her… imply, I do not like her like her, however you realize what I imply?’ Like that entire scene on the, wow, I can not imagine I remembered that. However she’s nonetheless simply so cool, proper? Jamie simply walks with a cool vibe. And so I believe Jake’s simply had an affection for her and that is the place it got here from. So we sat down and I mentioned, ‘Let’s play with that.’
Whereas I had initially seen Jake and Tess’ chemistry as Jake and Anna falling for one another, simply within the mistaken physique, as I’ve watched the film over time, I’ve observed that he and Anna actually didn’t match in addition to when he was together with her mother. I completely love that within the sequel they resolve to discover that he actually felt the magic with Tess, and it was her that he was actually eager about all alongside. Murray advocated it himself, and it’s a extremely humorous bit for the sequel to have in it.
The cherry on prime? It is when he arrives at Anna’s marriage ceremony on the finish with a girl that’s dressed precisely like Tess from the primary film.
It’s actually profitable in offering fan service. We gave it a 4 out of 5 stars in our Freakier Friday assessment, and it’s anticipated to have a stable opening weekend on the field workplace. Throughout our unique interview with Murray, he additionally talked about filming that Britney Spears scene when he was 19.