There won’t be hacky sack in the quad, but Rachael Leigh Cook and Freddie Prinze Jr. are reuniting for an all-new movie this holiday season.
The former She’s All That costars are teaming up for the first time in 25 years for Fox Entertainment Studio’s The Christmas Affair, the company announced on Thursday, May 29.
In the film, Cook, 45, and Prinze Jr., 49, play sportscasters Natalie and Gabe, respectively, who “form an unlikely alliance after their spouses are caught cheating weeks before Christmas,” according to the logline.
Fox teases the premise, writing, “As holiday chaos and media attention mount, they begin to fall for each other. But is this just a rebound…or the start of a real Christmas romance?”
The Christmas Affair will also reunite Prinze Jr. and Cook with She’s All That coproducer Jennifer Gigbot, who is producing the holiday movie.
“FOX Entertainment Studios is excited to grant the Christmas wish of countless holiday romcom fans with the long-awaited reunion of Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook,” head of scripted at Fox Entertainment Studios, Hannah Pillemer, said in a press release. “This iconic couple stole our hearts over 25 years ago, and we are grateful to work with them on this all-new romantic comedy filled with holiday magic.”
Prior to The Christmas Affair, Prinze Jr. and Cook played love interests in 1999’s She’s All That. In the beloved ’90s rom-com, Prinze Jr.’s Zack makes a bet with his friends that he can turn the girl-next-door Laney (Cook) int their next prom queen.
Along the way, Zack and Laney fall in love, but it’s nearly ruined when his bet comes to light and leaves him in the doghouse.
Since working together on the rom-com — and bonding over the death of their She’s All That costar Paul Walker in 2013 — Cook and Prinze Jr. have remained fans of each other.
“I just love that guy,” Cook told E! News of Prinze Jr. in August 2021. “But I probably didn’t talk to him again until a couple of years after Paul died and realized you really have to reach out and take some initiative.”
She recalled, “So we got coffee and I remember saying to him, ‘I know we never really hung out very much after the shoot, but you have no idea what a big part of my life this ended up being.’ And he said something very Freddie-like, ‘Me too, dude. It’s crazy.’ But I’m so lucky that it’s someone as charming and as lovely as Freddie to share that with.”
