Spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t yet watched the entirety of Rick and Morty’s latest Season 7 episode, so be warned!
Usually when Rick and Morty episodes hinge on one or more direct pop culture references destined to be spun around and turned inside-out, the concepts are morphed well beyond what their sources of inspiration were. That sorta happened with the second Season 7 episode, “The Jerrick Trap,” whose title is a send-up of the classic Hayley Mills body-swapping comedy The Parent Trap, and whose dialogue makes multiple references to that other most famous high-concept family film, Freaky Friday. And even though the animated sci-fi shenanigans obviously take things over the top — with lots of corpses, gunshots and impalings — I think the episode presents a unique enough twist to the switch-em-up trope that it could be replicated in part for the long-awaited and occasionally teased sequel to Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis’ 2003 FF remake.
How Rick And Morty's "The Jerrick Trap" Played Out
In its cold open, Rick and Morty set up a total nightmare body-swap scenario, with Rick getting offended over having to check his brain privilege, and attempting to impart the struggles of his intelligence to Jerry. Only that went about as well as it would have if Jerry himself had designed it all, and led to a garage covered in their brain matter and other viscera. Thankfully, Rick’s consistently put-upon A.I. stepped in (as it were) to save the day, only without fully separating all the splattered bits.
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As such, the reconstituted versions of the two characters weren’t fully enveloped by one brain/mind or the other other, but rather a combination of their polar opposite personalities. Granted, Rick’s total alpha persona still basically steered the ship in both respects, but not without some grounded input and instincts from his son-in-law, which helped further develop the forever-frayed bond that exists between just about all versions of Rick and Jerry. And while their specific relationship isn’t one that can easily be ported into other pop culture touchstones, the general concept of evenly distributed consciousnesses within a body-swap comedy is ripe for exploration in a live-action respect.
Why Freaky Friday's Sequel Should Use Rick And Morty As Inspiration
I can easily understand why Disney hasn’t tried to fart out a Freaky Friday sequel to the 2003 hit, even despite producing a wholly different remake as a Disney Channel Original in 2018. (And also not counting the 2020 horror comedy Freaky, which was produced by Universal and Blumhouse.) Because for all intents and purposes, body-swap projects don’t tend to have a whole lot of wiggle room where the main narrative is concerned, and the main differences from one comedy to the next tend to involve the specific character relationships, with Big, Vice Versa, Like Father Like Son and many others as examples.
But Rick and Morty’s twisteroo would allow for quite an interesting dynamic for a second swap between Lohan’s Anna Coleman and her mother Tess, with the former now a fully grown adult presumably with a whole new set of ups and downs to deal with. Rather than adhering to a child-centric plot, Freaky Friday’s follow-up could instead continue focusing on the mother-daughter relationship that fueled the first film, and in emotionally mature ways that speak to how families change over time. And instead of Tess and Anna once again being complete opposites in different bodies, their switch could meld both of their personalities together, so that both women are entirely capable of grasping where the other is coming from.
In R&M, that dynamic was obviously played for weirdness and laughs, with Jerry and Rick both deciding that a life of madcap criminal enterprising, combined with fruit-covered shirts, was more ideal than sticking around the family. Which in some ways was probably more comfortable for Beth. And even that gag could get utilized in a fun way for a Freaky Friday sequel, with Mark Harmon’s Ryan having to deal with temporarily being married to both his wife and his step-daughter. (Not that any Disney movie would dig too deeply into that aspect, and it’s almost bizarre that the Adult Swim comedy didn’t dive deeper into such sludgy topics.)
To be sure, I totally get that Freaky Friday doesn’t even have a confirmed sequel in the works or anything, for all that fans have wanted to see it happen over the years. More talk has come about in 2023 than usual due to it being 20 years since Mark Waters’ film hit theaters, and by all means, it seems like Jamie Lee Curtis is interested, as she told fans it’s happening in 2024. Plus, the Halloween franchise vet still keeps in touch with Lindsay Lohan, and one would think if there was any indication the Mean Girls star was uninterested in returning, Curtis probably wouldn’t bring it up.
I doubt anyone out there in Sequel Greenlighting Land is listening at the moment, but just in case: Make that movie happen! And now, take a look at the preview for Season 7’s third episode below.
Considering most of the conversations surrounding Rick and Morty Season 7 thus far have been wholly dedicated to opinions about the recast voice actors and the writing in the aftermath of Justin Roiland being fired earlier this year, Freaky Friday sequels might not be at the forefront of anyone else's brain but my own. At least I assume it's mine...
Rick and Morty airs Sunday nights on Adult Swim at 11:30 p.m. ET, with episodes available to stream with a Max subscription.
