‘Jennifer’s Body 2’ Reportedly Has Its Needy: Amanda Seyfried Joins Megan Fox, and Everything We Know
The sequel to one of horror's most famous box office redemption stories reportedly just found its other half. Insider Daniel Richtman wrote on his Patreon on Tuesday, Nov. 3, that Amanda Seyfried will return for Jennifer's Body 2 alongside Megan Fox at 20th Century Studios, with Karyn Kusama directing from a Diablo Cody script. Dread Central ran with the report the same day, and it matters because Seyfried was the missing piece. Dread Central had already said in July that it confirmed Fox's return on its own, but Seyfried had not signed at that point.
Here is the important caveat up front: nobody at the studio has announced anything, and neither has the cast. This is a single-source report on Seyfried, sitting on top of months of smaller signals. So below we sort what is solid from what is still rumor, walk through how a film that cost $16 million and flopped became one of the most cherished cult titles of its era, and dig into the question nobody is asking loudly enough: does Disney put this in theaters?
Watch the Original Trailer
There is no footage from the sequel, and no sign cameras have rolled. So here is the 2009 trailer, which doubles as a time capsule of the marketing Cody still talks about. Watch who it is clearly selling to.
What's Confirmed, and What Isn't
It helps to separate this into tiers, because the headlines have flattened them all together.
- On the record: Diablo Cody said on the Petticoat Revolution podcast in October that a sequel is coming very soon, using the word imminently, according to TheWrap. She also spent the spring talking openly about writing it.
- Reported by trades or genre outlets: The A.V. Club pointed to Deadline confirming Cody is developing the film at 20th Century. Dread Central's July exclusive said Kusama would direct, Fox was back, and Disney was behind the project, with distribution unclear.
- Single-source: Seyfried's return, via Richtman. Treat it as reportedly, not definitely.
- Unverified timing: A Production Weekly listing pointed to an October 2026 shoot in Vancouver. No outlet has confirmed filming started, and Fiction Horizon notes one outlet now expects a later start.
- Nothing yet: No release date, no plot synopsis, no rating, no announced platform.
What Cody Has Said About the Script
The most useful material comes from Cody herself, because she has been unusually chatty for someone with a sealed script. On Bloody Disgusting's Boo Crew podcast in March, she told listeners the project is not following the usual sequel route, and that she believes the culture has finally caught up with what the first film was attempting, per Inverse. Inverse's read is that this is a true continuation rather than a reboot, and that audiences will find out what became of both girls.
About a week later, JoBlo rounded up more from that conversation. Cody described the writing as pure pleasure, said the limits she felt in 2009 are gone, and made the most intriguing remark of the whole campaign: "this one is not just about Jennifer and Needy, it's about me." Producer Mason Novick, who has read the pages, praised them as both strong and funny.
Then came the October podcast, where she took on the character's reputation directly. "Jennifer is a sympathetic character for me, before and after the transformation," she told Petticoat Revolution. She went on to credit Fox for playing both versions, and to talk about a loneliness in the role that viewers tend to miss. That is a real signal about tone. A man-eating demon is usually the punchline or the villain, and Cody is telling you she sees a tragic lead.
Photo: Megan Fox at TIFF in 2009 via Wikimedia Commons ( author and license), cropped.
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Who's Behind It
Karyn Kusama has become a far more bankable horror name than she was in 2009. Her credits include The Invitation , shot in 20 days for about $1 million and a Best Film winner at Sitges, plus a segment of the anthology XX , and directing and producing on Yellowjackets , which earned her an Emmy nomination. Her dance card is getting crowded: she is also attached to the first two episodes of The Terror season 3 and to Sony's Mouthwashing movie. Her last feature, Destroyer , came out in 2018.
Diablo Cody won the Oscar for Juno and a Tony for the book of Jagged Little Pill. In horror, she did revisions on 2013's Evil Dead and wrote Lisa Frankenstein , which shares a continuity with Jennifer's Body. That one is a cautionary tale: SlashFilm reported a $3.8 million opening weekend against a $13 million budget, well under forecasts of $9 million to $14 million.
Megan Fox has kept a toe in genre with Till Death in 2021, the android thriller Subservience in 2024, and the voice of Toy Chica in Five Nights at Freddy's 2. Amanda Seyfried , meanwhile, arrives as a far bigger draw than in 2009. She has an Emmy for The Dropout , an Oscar nomination for Mank , and a big recent hit in The Housemaid , which passed $305 million worldwide by January on a $35 million budget. According to Cosmic Book News, she has also said she would not come back without Fox, so that pairing looks like the whole deal.
Photo: Karyn Kusama at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival via Wikimedia Commons ( author and license).
The Backstory: From $6.8 Million to Feminist Classic
Jennifer's Body premiered at Toronto on Sept. 10, 2009, then hit theaters eight days later through 20th Century Fox and its Fox Atomic label. The cast was absurdly stacked in hindsight: Adam Brody, J.K. Simmons, Amy Sedaris, Kyle Gallner, Chris Pratt and Lance Henriksen. It landed at No. 5 that weekend and left with a 46% on Rotten Tomatoes and a C- CinemaScore.
The common explanation for that failure is the campaign. The film was sold on Fox's sex appeal to young men, while the actual movie is a queasy story about female friendship and predation. Cody has said it was marketed all wrong and, in a 2024 interview, that she felt humiliated by the reaction at the time. A decade later, the reappraisal arrived in force. Vox called it a forgotten feminist classic in 2018, and writer Carmen Maria Machado has championed it as a queer touchstone.
The sequel chatter has been building for years. Cody said in January 2024 that she wanted to make one. In March 2025, TheWrap notes, Seyfried let slip at a Toronto screening that she thought another was being made, then immediately tried to walk it back. Dread Central says it broke word of Cody's script in March of this year, followed by its Fox and Kusama report in July.
By the Numbers
- Budget: $16 million
- Opening weekend: $6.8 million
- Final gross: about $16.2 million domestic, about $31.6 million worldwide
- Scores: 46% Rotten Tomatoes, 47 Metacritic, C- CinemaScore
What This Really Means
A $31.6 million gross does not earn a sequel 17 years later. What earned it is the afterlife, and that creates the central business problem. Cult audiences are passionate, but they are not automatically a big opening weekend, and Lisa Frankenstein proved that hard. Cody's name and a shared universe wink were not enough to pull people out of the house in 2024.
So look at the comparisons. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come , from Disney's Searchlight label, opened to about $9.1 million in March and ended near $43.1 million worldwide on a $14 million budget. That is a fair floor for a modest sequel with a devoted fan base. Practical Magic 2 , a Warner Bros. follow-up to another 1990s misfire turned sleepover favorite, opened to an estimated $30 million in North America in September, which shows how far a beloved title can run with stars on the poster. And then there is the other Disney route: Hocus Pocus 2 skipped theaters and pulled a then-record 2.7 billion Nielsen minutes in its opening days on Disney+.
That is the real fork in the road. Our take: this should go to theaters, and Seyfried is the reason it can. With her Housemaid momentum next to Fox, the film suddenly has a two-hander poster that plays beyond the cult. A straight-to-Hulu release would be a perfectly profitable decision, and also a little bit of a repeat of 2009, when the studio could not see who this movie was for. Keep the budget in the low range, aim at the young women the first campaign ignored, and treat October as an event. There is also a creative trap worth watching. The original ends with spoiler-sensitive business that makes Jennifer's return tricky, and a sequel that leans on nostalgia alone would be easy to resent. Cody's comments suggest she knows that, since she keeps framing this as something personal rather than a reunion lap.
What We Still Don't Know
Whether Seyfried has actually signed. Whether cameras are rolling in Vancouver, or whether the Production Weekly date slipped. How Jennifer comes back, what Cody meant by making it about herself, and whether anyone else from the 2009 cast returns. Which Disney door it walks through, and when. Expect a formal announcement to be the next real news, and be wary of any release date until a studio says it out loud.
The Bottom Line
If the Seyfried report holds, the original lead duo, director and writer are all back for a film the industry laughed off 17 years ago. That is about as satisfying as sequel news gets, provided it is a real movie and not a victory lap. So tell us: does Jennifer's Body 2 deserve a theatrical release, or is streaming the smarter home?
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Header photo: Amanda Seyfried at the 2024 Berlinale via Wikimedia Commons ( author and license), cropped with text added.
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