Freaky Friday 2 Is Set To Copy A “Rotten” Body Swap Movie From 2023

Summary

• Freaky Friday 2 will feature a fresh twist with four characters swapping bodies, adding complexity to the classic body-swap trope.
• Family Switch tried a similar concept with a family of four swapping bodies, but failed to impress critics with a 41% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
• The success of Freaky Friday 2 will depend on creating a solid story concept that goes beyond typical genre tropes to hold viewers’ attention.

Freaky Friday 2 is finally on the way, but the upcoming film seems to be copying a twist from another recent body-swap story that didn’t impress critics. The original Freaky Friday was released back in 2003, and fans have been waiting for a sequel to the hit ever since. Now, 20 years later, this is finally happening, with stars Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis expected to reprise their roles. Of course, Disney needs a fresh body-swap twist to make Freaky Friday 2 stand out, and given the prevalence of this movie trope, this will be no easy task.

In the original story of Freaky Friday, teenager Anna (Lohan) and mother Tess (Curtis) unexpectedly swapped bodies when they struggled to see life from each other’s perspectives. Of course, their time walking in each other’s shoes helped the pair learn to appreciate each other more, and their relationship was all the better for it. It’s a heartwarming story packed full of a whole lot of fun, and Freaky Friday holds an impressive “Certified Fresh” score of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. It will be difficult for the confirmed Freaky Friday 2 to hold up the same way, and it may already be off to a rough start.

Freaky Friday 2 Is Copying Family Switch’s Body-Swap Twist

Netflix’s Family Switch Already Tried A 4-Person Body Swap Story

According to the audition sides for Freaky Friday 2 (via Screen Rant), the upcoming sequel will see Anna and Tess again find themselves in someone else’s bodies. However, rather than swapping with each other, Anna wakes up as her own teenage daughter, Harper, while Tess finds herself in the body of Anna’s soon-to-be stepdaughter, Lily. So rather than the standard two-body swap, Freaky Friday 2 will see four characters exchange consciousnesses.

Audition sides don’t necessarily contain finalized versions of a script, so
Freaky Friday 2
could potentially end up with an entirely different concept before release.

Though this is a decent twist from the original Freaky Friday movie, it has already been done with the characters of Netflix’s 2023 movie Family Switch. The film, which starred Jennifer Garner, Ed Helms, Emma Myers, and Brady Noon, saw a family of four find themselves in each other’s bodies—with two teenagers becoming their parents and vice versa. It was a fresh take on the typical body-swap trope, and this was used as a hook to convince prospective audiences the movie wouldn’t be the same old story they were used to. Unfortunately, Family Switch still failed to impress critics.

2023’s Family Switch Has A “Rotten” Score On Rotten Tomatoes

Family Switch Proved That Multiple Body Swaps Isn’t A Big Enough Twist

Family Switch had a lot going for it. The star-studded cast was enough to draw audiences in, and the idea of a four-person body swap was new enough to be interesting. Additionally, the Netflix movie took a meta approach to the old story trope, making tongue-in-cheek references to films like 17 Again, 13 Going on 30, and, of course, Freaky Friday. Additionally, Family Switch was marketed as a Christmas movie, another unique factor that separated it from others within the genre. However, the movie still came out “Rotten.”

Despite Family Switch doubling the number of characters who switch bodies, it wasn’t enough to make the movie feel fresh and new.

Netflix’s 2023 body-swap movie only managed a 41% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, earning itself a big old rotten splat mark. The audience score was only slightly better, coming in at 43%. It seems that, despite Family Switch doubling the number of characters who switch bodies (tripling, really, if we count the family’s baby and dog), it wasn’t enough to make the movie feel fresh and new. Since Freaky Friday2 seems to be adopting a similar twist, this could indicate that the long-awaited sequel won’t hold up to the beloved 2003 original.

How Freaky Friday 2 Can Improve On Family Switch’s Premise

Freaky Friday 2 Has The Potential To Do Better Than Family Switch

Of course, Freaky Friday 2 will have some advantages that Family Switch lacked. As popular as stars like Garner are, the return of Lohan and Curtis hold a different sort of weight. Freaky Friday is a cult classic, and a sequel is bound to capitalize on all the nostalgia that has built up over the past two decades. However, past reboots, sequels, and reunions have proven that this can only take a movie so far. Freaky Friday2 will need a solid story concept to hold viewers’ attention all the way through, which means improving on Family Switch‘s premise.

Freaky Friday 2 will need a solid story concept to hold viewers’ attention all the way through, which means improving on Family Switch’s premise.

Though Family Switch added more bodies to the mix, it followed the standard genre tropes of characters learning to better appreciate their situations by walking in someone else’s shoes. This is present across all body-swap stories, and though it is a staple of the genre, it makes these movies highly predictable. If Freaky Friday 2 hopes to hold up to its predecessor and stand out against “Rotton” movies like Family Switch, this may be precisely the trope that it needs to twist. Of course, this will be easier said than done. Ultimately, we will have to wait and see if the sequel can pull it off.