Ashanti sparked anticipation about revisiting her popular teen movie role “John Tucker Must Die” in conversations with a former castmate.
Ashanti revealed she’s been chatting with Arielle Kebbel about the long-rumored sequel to their iconic 2006 teen comedy, John Tucker Must Die.
The Grammy-winning R&B sensation recently dished to People magazine that she and Kebbel, her co-star from the beloved flick, have been swapping messages about bringing back the hilarious revenge tale for another round.
“Arielle, she texts me! We’ve been going back and forth a little bit. She told me that she had the idea and I was like, ‘Listen, if we can get it together, I’m down,’” Ashanti excitedly told the publication. “It would be hilarious to have a part two.”
The buzz about a potential sequel gained momentum earlier this year when Kebbel joined fellow original cast members Jesse Metcalfe and Sophia Bush at Epics Con Chicago in March 2024.
During the panel, the trio dropped the intriguing news that a script already exists for the follow-up and confirmed it includes all the original characters.
Fans of the film have been eagerly anticipating the possibility ever since.
In the original comedy, Ashanti teamed up with Kebbel and Bush as a trio of savvy high school students who discover they’re all dating the same smooth-talking heartbreaker, John Tucker, played by Metcalfe.
To teach him a lesson, they recruit new girl Kate, portrayed memorably by Brittany Snow, to give Tucker a taste of his own medicine and break his heart in spectacular fashion.
Kebbel has long championed the sequel, tirelessly advocating to bring the crew back together.
She explained to People in October, “everyone’s very supportive” of the “special project” and added enthusiastically, “we’re continuing to do our best to push forward on that.”
Yet not everyone from the original cast seems completely in the loop.
Brittany Snow, alongside co-star Penn Badgley, opened up last year on Badgley’s “Podcrushed” podcast about feeling slightly out of touch with the sequel’s development.
Snow admitted, “I didn’t know what happened, and I was like (to Kebbel), ‘Go forth. Go forth with that (idea).’ So that was the last I had heard of it, was that she was trying to make it happen, and so I guess she did? I will read whatever – they’ve worked really hard.”
