Diablo Cody Says ‘Lisa Frankenstein’ Takes Place In The Same Universe As ‘Jennifer’s Body’; Talks Reboot

By Armando Tinoco, Natalie Sitek

February 5, 2024 8:21pm

Diablo Cody returned to the horror-comedy genre with Lisa Frankenstein and is now declaring that her previous film, Jennifer’s Body, takes place in the same universe.

“I am just declaring that this movie takes place in the same universe,” Cody told Deadline during the premiere of Lisa Frankenstein. “I have decided that. I will not say that you’d see any overt references to that but I’m saying it.”

Jennifer’s Body is a 2009 horror comedy that Cody wrote starring Megan Fox in the titular role. The film follows a high school student who becomes demonically possessed following a sacrifice and kills her classmates to eat their flesh in order to survive. Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons, J.K. Simmons, Amy Sedaris and Adam Brody also starred.

Inspired by Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, Lisa Frankenstein follows a teenage goth girl, played by Kathryn Newton, who reanimates a Victorian-era corpse, played by Cole Sprouse, and works to make him the man of her dreams.

While promoting her new film, Cody has been getting asked about a Jennifer’s Body reboot and hopes that this will give her the “final push that I need to actually make it happen. It’s hard to get things made these days.”

Cody returned to the horror-comedy genre with Lisa Frankenstein and recalled that Jennifer’s Body was a “commercial and critical disaster” at the time.

“I was nervous to get back into that,” she told us about revisiting the genre. “And then this magical thing happened the last few years where that movie found an audience and people began to really appreciate it. And it gave me the confidence to say, ‘You know what? I never lost my passion for that world and I want to do another one.’ So, I’m here.”