Netflix is no stranger to fan favorite properties, with franchises like One Piece, Wednesday, Assassin’s Creed, Magic: The Gathering, and Scooby-Doo under its umbrella. Now the streaming giant is developing yet another fan favorite project, and this time around, they are rebooting an iconic 2000’s movie. While a reboot is nice, there are many fans who would rather just have a sequel than a complete reboot.
Netflix has announced that it is rebooting the modern classic romantic comedy known as 13 Going On 30, which was released in 2004 and starred Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo. The reboot has already locked in its leads, with Netflix revealing that Emily Bader and Logan Lerman will star in the film, and it will be executive-produced by Garner and directed by Brett Haley.
Thirty, flirty, and thriving… Emily Bader and Logan Lerman will star in 13 GOING ON 30, a new reboot of the 2004 classic.
Executive produced by Jennifer Garner and directed by Brett Haley (People We Meet on Vacation). pic.twitter.com/GVx7fUTbqo
— netflix⁷ (@netflix) March 24, 2026
What To Expect From 13 Going On 30 Reboot, And Would A Sequel Have Been Better?
All we know about the new project is that it will reboot the original film, with Bader in Garner’s role and Lerman in Ruffalo’s role. That said, would it have been better as a sequel, especially with so many fans of the original film all these years later?
If you’re unfamiliar, the original 13 Going On 30 followed 13-year-old Jenna Rink after a birthday party gone wrong leads to her wishing she could be thirty and thriving, and thanks to her best friend Matty Flamhaff’s dollhouse gift, which contained some magic wishing dust, she gets her wish. Jenna wakes up the next day and is suddenly living a very different life as an adult, and as the film goes on, Jenna doesn’t exactly love the person she’s turned into, especially after she reunites with Matty.
The story’s third act is a rollercoaster of emotions, as she interrupts Matty’s wedding and confesses her feelings for him, and tries to convince him that she’s not this person. While he admits that he has always had feelings for her and still loves her to this day, too many years have passed for him to act on those feelings now.
He does give her the dollhouse that he had given her at her birthday party, and after the remnants of the wishing dust are activated, Jenna ends up back at her 13th birthday party. Not only does she kiss Matty after he finds her crying in the closet, but the film reveals that they remained together from that point on, showing a now married Jenna and Matty moving into their new house that looks a lot like the dollhouse Matty made for her all those years ago.
With an ending like that, you can see why fans would love to just have a sequel pick up from there or even years later. If you introduce children into the mix, you could then have them have their own forward-in-time adventure, but what if it takes the parents with them, and they are now older? You could also take a note from the successful Freakier Friday sequel and switch the roles, with Jenna and Matty being thrown into younger ages while the kids are suddenly older, though you could also explore alternate timelines with different decisions playing out for one or multiple members of the family.
While we won’t be getting a sequel, the good news is that Garner is involved in the project, and the cast revealed so far is excellent, so there are already some things to get excited about in terms of this new project. Hopefully, we’ll learn more soon, but Netflix has certainly piqued our interest with the announcement.
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