Alicia Silverstone's Long-Awaited 'Clueless' Return Addressed Amid Studio Split

Cancelled? As if! The upcoming sequel series planned for Clueless is not going anywhere. With the recent Skydance merger, there have been shakeups naturally with CBS and Paramount. Now CBS Studios and Paramount TV Studios exist as separate entities. But what does that mean for projects related to the studio? Deadline reports that the Clueless sequel series, which is currently in development at Peacock, rather than Paramount or CBS, is still moving forward. The 90's teen romcom starring Alicia Silverstone was a Paramount title, and according to Deadline, CBS Studios is working towards making the IP available for TV, and that's been the case for several years. As the film celebrates 30 years, the sequel series was announced back in April, with Silverstone attached to return as Cher Horowitz. The original film also starred Paul Rudd, Stacey Dash, and the late Brittany Murphy.

The original film's premise is as follows:

"Shallow, rich and socially successful Cher (Alicia Silverstone) is at the top of her Beverly Hills high school's pecking scale. Seeing herself as a matchmaker, Cher first coaxes two teachers into dating each other. Emboldened by her success, she decides to give hopelessly klutzy new student Tai (Brittany Murphy) a makeover. When Tai becomes more popular than she is, Cher realizes that her disapproving ex-stepbrother (Paul Rudd) was right about how misguided she was -- and falls for him."

'Clueless' Is Actually Based on a Jane Austen Novel

The 82% Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes film from 1995 is actually a reimagining of the Regency-era novel, Emma by Jane Austen. Its premise, similiar with Cher and Emma both meddling with the match-making ways all while accidentally falling in love themselves. The most recent adaptation of Emma was the 2020 EMMA. which starred Anya Taylor-Joy as Emma Woodhouse, Johnny Flynn as George Knightley, and Callum Turner as Frank Churchill. While there was an attempt to continue the story of Clueless in the 90s with a series starring Rachel Blanchard instead as Cher, the series, which ran for 3 seasons, is largely forgotten and not well-received. Silverstone's return to whatever Peacock is cooking up bodes well, and if the ageless Paul Rudd signs on for the project as well, so much the better. It wouldn't be surprising if Cher ended up with a child who is just as meddlesome as she was in high school, so there's plenty of avenues for writers to take.

Clueless is available to stream on Peacock. Stay with Collider for the latest updates.

Clueless

Release Date

July 19, 1995

Runtime

97 minutes

Director

Amy Heckerling

Writers

Amy Heckerling