In an era where everything old is new again, millennial nostalgia has reached fever pitch. Everything is a reboot or a remake or a rehash these days — from films like
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Mean Girls:The Musical to shows like High School Musical The Musical The Series (which catapulted Olivia Rodrigo to fame).
Yes, IP is king, and Hollywood runs on sure bets. But also, we can’t overlook the power of a heartthrob to shape culture. And the particular brand of nostalgia I’m feeling is totally fueled by the unexpected comebacks of two early 2000s heartthrobs: Zac Efron and Chad Michael Murray.
Efron had a surprising summer Netflix hit in his turn as a reformed celebrity playboy in A Family Affair. Yes, the film stars Nicole Kidman — who’s in another age-gap romance this year Babygirl, alongside Efron’s former costar Harris Dickinson. But the most headline-worthy thing about the film was the press tour. Fueled by costar Joey King’s own memories of being a High School Musical and Hairspray fan, Efron took fans through a highlight reel of his finest moments.
From reaction videos of his most iconic scenes to brand-new revelations about decade-old performances, it was refreshing to hear Efron’s perspective. After distancing himself from the Disney bubble, Efron barely talks about his days as a teen dreamboat. But we haven’t forgotten. So this influx of information was a welcome change — and oh my god, the lore was better than I could have imagined.
@much #ZacEfron rewatching and reacting to ‘High School Musical’ is so wholesome 😭 Via: @Vanity Fair ♬ original sound - MuchMusic
Efron spent a lot of time reminiscing on his breakout role in the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical. From revealing that the “Getcha Head In The Game” dance number (basketball shots and all) was filmed in one take to shouting out his castmates and saying he’s up for a reunion, it was everything I never knew I needed. The most rousing revelation was when he casually dropped the fact that his most memorable — and most memed — performance of “Bet On It” in High School Musical 2 was entirely improvised.
@netflix joey king loves high school musical-era zac efron? bet on it #AFamilyAffair ♬ original sound - Netflix
Fans reeled at the tsunami of tea. What do you mean that every perfectly executed moment of angst in that video was improvised? Pure genius. Virtuosic commitment to the bit. “Give Zac Efron a Retroactive Oscar,” exclaimed The Cut. And I agree. I’ve been saying that Zac Efron needs his flowers for years. He’s our generation’s McConaughey. And he’s finally getting his due — especially since his role in The Iron Claw last year, alongside Jeremy Allen White and Harris Dickinson. With upcoming projects on the way, he’s in a verifiable career resurgence.
But he’s not the only one of my teenage crushes experiencing a second act to their career.
Chad Michael Murray, the brooding heartthrob who filled every millennial girl's dreams during his time on One Tree Hill, has been staging a comeback of his own. While promoting his latest projects — Mother of the Bride, along with the new steamy CW series Sullivan's Crossing — he’s been doing interviews, appearing on podcasts, and making TikToks to fuel our nostalgia — and it’s working.
For the past few years, Murray’s been popping up in the most random media. He did a stint on Riverdale as a hot cult leader (I would have fallen for it too). He did a couple of Hallmark movies. But now he’s back in the mainstream and digging into this nostalgia hole alongside us.
As he prepares to film Freaky Friday 2 — a sequel to the 21-year-old Lindsay Lohan flick, which is in turn a remake of the original-original 1976 Freaky Friday that starred Jodi Foster! — we’re eating it up. It’s 20+ years since the original, so Murray’s celebrating by spilling the tea on some of his best roles. He’s also been reciting some of his most memorable lines to melt fans' hearts.
But along with the lore, there’s gossip galore. In hindsight, some facts about backstage beef and our faves feuding have emerged. But they don’t cloud our visions of those iconic millennial dramas — honestly, the smell of drama just makes me more intrigued.
The headline? Chad Michael Murray found himself in the middle of a love triangle between Lindsay Lohan, Hillary Duff, and Aaron Carter. Carter dumped Duff for Lohan in a move that’s reminiscent of the Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter drama.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Murray worked with Lohan on Freaky Friday the year before A Cinderella Story. As a co-star to both starlets, he became a conduit for chaos. Long story short, they both gossiped about each other in the press — a 2000s version of subtweets or Twitter beef — and Duff barred Lohan from the A Cinderella Story premiere. Here’s hoping Duff will make it to the Freaky Friday 2 premiere.
But it's not just the stars who are feeling this nostalgia wave. The reunions and comebacks have created a strange new reality where millennials are simultaneously reliving their youth and facing their mortality. This nostalgia boom has led to some unexpected trends in the world of fashion and pop culture. Low-rise jeans are fully back and other millennial memories are being resurrected in front of them by Gen Z — raising questions about whether we're moving forward or simply stuck in a Y2K time loop.
The resurgence of these millennial icons, combined with the run of reunion tours sweeping the nation, has created a perfect storm of nostalgia that's hitting millennials harder than the realization that "10 years ago" is no longer the 90s. Take the reunion of the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus being crowned a Disney legend, and even Justin Bieber having a baby. Everything’s a reminder that our favorite childhood stars are old now — and we are too.
The resurrection of these cultural touchstones has sparked a new phenomenon: nostalgia whiplash. One minute, you're belting out "Breaking Free" in your car, feeling like you're 16 again. The next, you're googling "Zac Efron age" and having an existential crisis when you realize he's old enough to play the dad in movies. It's like emotional time travel if time travel leaves you with a slight hangover and the realization that you can't stay out as late as you used to.
And with time, secrets often emerge. Like how when Britpop icons Oasis announced their reunion, fans took a trip down memory lane to revisit the best and worst of the Britpop/hard rock band. With time, the good seems better, and the bad just gives it layers.
There’s no show that epitomizes this more than Glee. For better or for worse, Ryan Murphy changed the television landscape with this one. By making a show entirely about outsiders — namely putting queer people front and center for the first time — he was a pioneer of representation. But Glee didn't birth a legion of gleeks for no reason — that chaotic, cursed show had a profound impact on us. Can you believe the first episode premiered 15 years ago?
It’s been 15 years since “Don’t Stop Believing” got an update, since a whole new generation of these kids were indoctrinated into loving the musical Funny Girl (guilty), and the world met Lea Michele. But the past 15 years haven’t been easy. The Glee curse is just about as tragic as the Kennedy family curse.
Stars of the show — Corey Monteith, Naya Rivera, and Mark Salling — have died. Members of the crew have also been victims of the Glee curse, including assistant director Jim Fuller, who died of a heart attack; production assistant Nancy Motes, who died by suicide; and Matthew Morrison's stand-in Mark Watson, who died from a “car fire.”
Plus, shows like The Price of Glee and Quiet on Set have revealed the dark truths behind some of our cherished childhood shows. That’s the price of getting older: seeing the hard truths beneath the rosy veneer.
Yet, for all the existential crises and surreal moments, there's something undeniably comforting about this latest wave of nostalgia. In a world that often feels chaotic and unpredictable, there's solace to be found in the familiar chords of a Jonas Brothers song or still saying, “they did this on Glee” whenever you’re at a bar and a classic rock song plays.
I often wish it could just be 2008 again, the year High School Musical 3 and Twilight both came out in theaters. Or better yet, Summer of 2007, when High School Musical 2 premiered on the same night as the first episode of Phineas and Ferb and the Hannah Montana Episode “Me and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas” — the epic Disney Channel crossover that inspired the best Jonas Brother song, “Lovebug.” That just might have been the best night of my life.
But now I’m here: slathering on anti-aging treatments, considering “preventative” Botox, and checking my 401K balance. If you want to feel even older, here are some of our other teen media favorites that are having Significant Anniversaries this year:
1. A Cinderella Story (20th Anniversary)
Remember when we thought AOL Instant Messenger was the height of romance? Oh, to text Austin Ames “LOL” over AIM. Now we're getting ghosted on the apps and no amount of fairy godmother magic can fix our dating lives.
This flick sold us the lie that the hot quarterback was secretly a sensitive poet who'd fall for the quirky outsider. A classic tale for rom-coms but this is arguably one of the best that’s ever been executed. No Cinderella adaptation has come close to this one. Especially not Another Cinderella Story with Selena Gomez — though “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” was a banger. With a new Freaky Friday in the works, I’m hoping this Chad Michael Murray flick will also get its remake.
https://www.tiktok.com/@entertainmenttonight/video/7367064189417917726
2. Glee (15th Anniversary of Premiere)
I’ll never forgive Ryan Murphy for giving theater kids a platform …yet they can never make me hate Glee. Cast feuds, diva drama, and rumors of on-set fights just add to the allure of the drama. Glee is the reason TV went from High School Musical to an even more musical high school and then further onto musical college, like Pitch Perfect. But I can still sing every Mercedes harmony in the Glee soundtrack.
Yes, age has taught me that Mr. Schue was kind of a creepy man-child with a vest fetish who lived vicariously through his students — why were his students the only people at his wedding??? And though Rachel Berry was supposed to be the protagonist, we realized that being a diva doesn't get you ahead in life. It only makes everyone hate you at the office Christmas party.
Yet, there’ll never be anything like belting the Glee version of “Don’t Stop Believing” — or better yet, Jonathan Groff’s rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
3. Mean Girls (20 years)
20 years ago, fetch happened. The movie is a hallmark of millennial nostalgia, with quotes so insidious they worked their way into memes and lexicons alike. Tina Fey's magnum opus about teenage cruelty gave us unforgettable quips and unrealistic expectations of high school hotness. Two decades later, the remake they made for Gen Z starring Renee Rapp, frankly, doesn’t come close to the original. I cherish the Lohan version even more now that I’ve seen what a trainwreck the second version is. The limits of our obsession does not exist, apparently.
4. Napoleon Dynamite (20 years)
Remember when random equaled funny? This indie darling made awkward cool in peak millennial humor. Nothing about this movie would fly anymore. Gen Zs probably cringe at our love for it. But when it was good, it was very-very good.. We quoted it ad nauseam, wore "Vote for Pedro" shirts unironically, and thought “ligers” were a laugh riot. Every year, more than one person donned a Napolean wig, glasses, and a “Vote For Pedro” shirt and did that dance sequence in my high school talent show. That experience can never be replicated by TikTok dances or Netflix films.
5. Saw (20 years)
Nothing says millennial childhood quite like a sadistic puppet forcing people into elaborate death traps. This torture porn franchise kickstarted our generation's fascination with escape rooms and moral dilemmas. Now we're too anxious to watch anything more intense than "Great British Bake Off." How the mighty have fallen.
6. The Notebook (20 years)
The fact that The Notebook was 20 years ago is a testament to Ryan Gosling. He’s still managed to be relevant to the zeitgeist and one of the least awful men in Hollywood. From playing our dear Noah in this Nicholas Sparks masterpiece to playing Ken in Barbie, he is always in our hearts. In the words of Glenn Powell, “Gosling is a legend.” Cut to 2024, and we're swiping through dating apps, wondering why our Hinge matches don't build our houses or write us 365 letters. But we can still dream.
7. Anchorman (20 years)
Is Anchorman the boy equivalent of Mean Girls? Every non-funny man I’ve ever met thinks “Stay Classy” is a hilarious quote and witty reference. And who can blame them? At the time, Anchorman was the peak of comedy. We laughed our asses off at Ron Burgundy's chauvinistic antics. But still liking this movie is a red flag — it’s a sign that a person’s sense of humor might not have matured beyond age 15.
8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (20 years)
The way stills of this movie haunted Tumblr should be examined. Pink and blue-haired Kate Winslet is admittedly still on my winter mood boards. This film was an episode of Black Mirror before Black Mirror. For a film about erasing our exes from our brains, it sure felt romantic at the time. Two decades later, we're still trying to Marie Kondo our emotional baggage while stalking our high school crushes on Facebook. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet's mind-bending romance feels more like an indie fever dream with each passing year.
9. Spider-Man 2 (20 years)
Have you heard about the Spiderman to tennis movie pipeline? Kirsten Dunst doing Wimbledon, Emma Stone doing Battle of the Sexes and Zendaya doing Challengers — I might venture to say these are the finest things to come out of the Spiderman franchise. But I have to admit, the Tobey Maguire version is a classic. The fact that we’ve been through Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland as Spiderman, plus the Spiderverse series — in the past twenty years! — is mind-boggling to me.
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