Alex Hardcastle’s comedy film Senior Year has premiered on Netflix, entering at a strong second place on the UK top ten, despite tepid reviews and noticeable plot holes spotted by viewers.
The film, starring Pitch Perfect’s Rebel Wilson, follows high school royalty Stephanie Conway, who, after a cheerleading accident resulting in severe brain injury, suffers a 20-year coma. Waking up in 2022, the thirty-something Stephanie decides to return to high school, but struggles with the change in culture and social structure, undermining her carefully woven popularity built on noughties social standards and superficiality.
Considering the film’s mid-credit scene and Netflix’s love of rom-com sequels (see the innumerable To all the boys I’ve loved Befores and The Kissing Booths), audiences are speculating a second instalment to Hardcastle’s feature film directorial debut.
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Here is everything we know so far about a potential sequel to Netflix’s biggest opening rom-com of 2022.
Will there be a Senior Year Sequel?
Whilst no sequel has yet been confirmed by Netflix or the filmmakers, fans have high hopes for the second instalment, picking up from the film’s tidy conclusion.
With a guesstimated release for 2024, the biggest clue for an announcement would be the film’s mid-credit scene, featuring Wilson as Stephanie meeting with the school guidance counsellor Mr. Tapper (Brandon Scott Jones). The pair discusses options for college, before a miscommunicated gesture by Wilson leads to the conversation turning uncomfortably sexual, leading both actors to break character. A clear opening for a follow-up, any sequel still depends on the audience’s reception of the film and its overall success, which so far remains unseen.
What would a Senior Year sequel be about?
The first film concludes with an older Stephanie winning prom queen and meeting her idol Deanna Russo (Alicia Silverstone). Encountering Russo as her taxi driver, her loss of success forces Stephanie to realise the shallowness of her adolescent dreams, prompting her to mend the relationships around her, resulting in a romance between her and best-friend Seth (Sam Richardson as an adult and Zaire Adams as a teen).
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The fairly neat conclusion, along with mid-credit scene poses a number of potential plot routes for the sequel
Who would be cast in the Senior Year sequel?
It is suspected many of the original cast would return for a second instalment, particularly Wilson, who starred in Netflix’s 2019 rom-com Isn’t It Romantic, Sam Richardson, who plays an adult Seth, Stephanie’s best-friend, and Zoë Chao as Tiffany Blanchette-Balbo, Stephanie’s high school rival who returns to sabotage her second stab at becoming prom queen.
Whether the cast portraying teen versions of these characters will return is unknown. Angourie Rice, recognisable from Tom Holland’s trio of Spider-Man films, played a younger Stephanie Conway, along with Zaire Adams as a young Seth and Ana Yi Puig as a young Tiffany.
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A full cast list of the original film includes:
- Rebel Wilson as Stephanie Conway
- Angourie Rice as teen Stephanie Conway
- Sam Richardson as Seth Novacelik
- Zaire Adams as teen Seth Novacelik
- Zoë Chao as Tiffany Blanchette-Balbo
- Ana Yi Puig as teen Tiffany Blanchette
- Mary Holland as Martha Reiser
- Molly Brown as teen Martha Reiser
- Justin Hartley as Blaine Balbo
- Tyler Barnhardt as teen Blaine Balbo
Senior Year’s reviews:
Since its release two weeks ago, Senior Year has received mixed reviews, starting off with a queasy 26% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an improved audience rating of 57%. The Guardian’s Benjamin Lee captured many viewers' opinions in identifying ‘a stultifying absence instead’, labelling the film as ‘a disappointing and derivative two-hour slog down memory lane.’
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Tags: Senior Year, Sequel, Netflix, Paramount Pictures, Rebel Wilson
Topics: TV and Film, Netflix
Alice Lang