The original four stars of Mean Girls – Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried and Lacey Chabert – have turned down the opportunity to reprise their roles of The Plastics in an upcoming movie. The quartet chose not to return to the film series because they reportedly felt the offer they received from Paramount Pictures was disrespectful, according to Page Six.

The news comes after the actresses, who have remained friends since the studio distributed the hit teen comedy in 2004, were initially willing to reunite on screen for the new movie that’s being adapted for Paramount+. The upcoming film will adapt the Drama Desk Award-winning Mean Girls Broadway musical for the screen.

It’s not currently known in what capacity the actresses would have returned to the franchise. But Lohan, McAdams, Seyfried and Chabert decided to pass on the opportunity to appear in the new movie altogether because Paramount didn’t want to pay them what they’re worth.

Production on the new Mean Girls film is expected to begin on March 6. Emmy Award-winning Tina Fey shared the news with her former Saturday Night Live co-star, Seth Meyers, earlier this month on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

The Golden Globe Award-winning Fey was offered a seven-figure deal to star in, write and produce the upcoming comedy, after she appeared in and scribe the original movie. She will also reprise her role as math teacher Ms. Norbury from the first film in the franchise’s latest entry.

Not only did Fey pen the original movie, she also wrote the book for the Broadway musical, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. Her husband, Jeff Richmond, co-scribed the music.

The Broadway musical, like the first film, follows teenager Cady Heron as she moves from Africa with her scientist parents to the suburbs of Illinois. As she tries to adjust to life in America, she gets swept up in the dynamics of her new high school’s social hierarchy.

However, Lohan, McAdams, Seyfriend and Chabert, who played the Plastics in the original movie, were allegedly offered a fraction of Fey’s deal. The low offer for the quartet would have remained the same whether they appeared in a cameo or in multiple pages of the script. McAdams, who played Regina George in the 2004 film, was reportedly offered a larger role in the upcoming feature than her former three co-stars.

Conversations regarding a Mean Girls screen follow-up have endured for more than a decade. The quartet have reunited in public on several occasions, including a reunion in 2020 with Katie Couric, during which they urged people to vote.

Last year, the Emmy Award-winning Seyfried and the SAG Award-nominated Lohan discussed the possibility of starring in a Mean Girls sequel during a conversation with Interview magazine. When Seyfried asked if Mean Girls 2 was ever going to happen, Lohan shared that she’d heard about the movie-musical. But she added that she felt: “We can’t do that. It has to be the same tone.”