Netflix has confirmed a reunion movie for The Inbetweeners and said production begins today, bringing Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison and Joe Thomas back together more than 15 years after they first played the same four awkward schoolmates. It is the first official sign that the long-rumoured return is now moving from talk to a working film.
Bird is back as Will McKenzie, the straight-faced centre of the series, alongside Buckley, Harrison and Thomas in a project that will again be written and directed by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris. Netflix also released a short first-look clip showing the cast climbing into a battered yellow 1996 Fiat Cinquecento Hawaii edition, the same car Simon Cooper was given by his parents after he passed his driving test in series one.
That is the part fans have been waiting for, but Netflix stopped short of saying what the story will actually be. No plot details were given for the characters, even as the production itself was put on the record today. For a comedy whose appeal has always come from watching its four leads stumble through adolescence, that missing detail matters as much as the confirmation.
The new film adds another chapter to a franchise that first aired on Channel 4 between 2008 and 2010 and went on to score ratings records across its three series. It also follows two earlier movies released in 2011 and 2014, the first of which went straight to No.1 at the box office and set a record for the biggest opening weekend for a UK comedy at the time. The sequel also broke box office records.
There had already been signs the reunion was coming. News that The Inbetweeners was on the cusp of returning began circulating last October, and Banijay UK CEO Patrick Holland said the group was “plotting more adventures” under a deal struck with Banijay UK and Fudge Park Productions more than a decade ago. Claire Jones is producing the new film alongside Patrick Holland and Mark Lesbirel, while Beesley and Morris will also serve as executive producers with Caroline Levy, Caroline Leddy, Phil Gilbert, Suzanne Knight, Tom Jordan and Farhana Bhula for Film4. The open question now is not whether The Inbetweeners is back, but what kind of trouble Will, Simon, Neil and Jay will get into next.
