If you are like me than you grew up with a little show called Zoey 101, which starred Jamie Lynn Spears as Zoey Brooks a girl who was part of the year a private school Pacific Coast Academy or PCA allowed girls to attend. The show ended around the time of Spears teen pregnancy, which may or may not have played a part in the shows abrupt end in 2008. The show was big growing up but in part thanks to a short for the shows 10th anniversary it created buzz for a reboot, which has become all the rage. This time it will be a movie that is set to stream on Paramount+ on July 27th.
The premise is “Zoey Brooks still trying to figure out life and love, this time in her 20s. Zoey and Chase did not end up in Hawaii that summer and haven’t heard from each other since. When close friends Quinn and Logan announce they’re getting married, Zoey and Chase find themselves in the wedding party.”
The movie sees Spears, Sean Flynn, Christopher Massey, Erin Sanders, Matthew Underwood, Jack Salvatore Jr., and Abby Wilde reprising their roles from the original show with some notable names missing from the returning cast. Paul Butcher who portrayed Dustin, Zoey’s younger brother as well as Victoria Justice who played Lola Martinez from season 2-4 on the show are missing. Victoria Justice has said that she had so many things on the go at the time so she couldn’t make it work, though she loves the cast and enjoyed making the show. Paul Butcher doesn’t have the nicest things to say about the reboot movie making his opinions known on social media, mainly on TikTok and had no interest in coming back.
It will come as no shock that Alexa Nikolas who played Nicole Bristow, the boy crazed roommate and bestfriend of Zoey for the first 2 seasons was not involved, given the bad blood between her and Spears. Alexa has spoken out against the work place environment, Spears and notably the creator of the show and countless Nickelodeon hit shows Dan Schneider. Any fans hoping for a cameo shouldn’t get their hopes up.
It is hard to see most of the cast as for many of them we haven’t seen or heard from most in the past 15 years since the show was cancelled. Some have aged well and others not so much but that’s what happens when you get older. Most have struggled after the show I mean Spears tried and failed at having a country music career post Zoey 101 and only in the past few years has returned to acting. The most successful ones from the show would be Victoria Justice (not returning) who starred in another Schneider show but never became a major actress/singer and Erin Sanders who has had some success with recurring roles on shows but nothing major.
Here is the trailer:
Is the movie necessary, not really but with so many platforms to stream movies and shows on they have to go back to the well, much like Netflix has done with Fuller House or Paramount did reviving, badly, The Rugrats.
Will I watch it? Sadly I probably will at some point this summer.
– Everett
