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Everything We Know About Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin’s ‘9 to 5’ Reboot

Alison Foreman
·2 min read

Nostalgia for the ’80s has been inspiring entertainment since well before “Stranger Things” hit streaming. Classic films from “Pretty Woman” to “American Psycho” have received musical adaptations on Broadway. And last year “Top Gun: Maverick” soared at the box office and into the Best Picture Oscars race: solidifying short-shorts, jet engines, and long overdue ’80s sequels as timeless symbols of Hollywood excellence.

So, asked politely but firmly: where the hell is our “9 to 5” revival?

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Starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton, Colin Higgins’ 1980 workplace comedy is an all-time great revenge flick sharpened by the specificity of its times. The feature-length feminist rallying cry tells the tale of three office workers who fantasize about getting even with their terrible boss Mr. Hart (Dabney Coleman): a sexist and self-centered jerk who, let’s be honest, really had that credenza-to-the-head coming.

From an unforgettable animated sequence featuring Tomlin as Snow White and a scene in which Fonda proudly announces, “I smoked a marijuana cigarette at a party once,” “9 to 5” launched one of the greatest comedic partnerships of the 20th — and 21st — centuries. It remains ripe for the revisiting with the “Grace & Frankie” pair still frequently collaborating on screens big and small.

“I don’t even know if we made the connection between ‘9 to 5’ and ‘Moving On,'” Tomlin told IndieWire in a recent interview for the latter film: another feminist revenge epic, this one from “Grandma” writer/director Paul Weitz. Now in theaters, Weitz’s latest stars Fonda and Tomlin as accomplices in a murder plot.

“We weren’t gonna kill Mr. Hart,” Tomlin notes with a wry smile. “We just wanted to put him out of commission for a short time.”

Rumors of a potential “9 to 5” sequel/remake/spiritual successor have swirled around cinema’s metaphoric water cooler for years, with Fonda and Tomlin freely sharing their enthusiasm for the project through interviews. Interest in the maybe-movie’s status was renewed in early 2023 during press for Kyle Marvin’s “80 for Brady,” a sports comedy which reunited Tomlin, Fonda, and Parton (albeit in music only) for the second time in recent memory. Parton also had a cameo role in the series finale of “Grace & Frankie” last year, appearing as a literal angel.

Following Fonda and Tomlin’s press tour for “Moving On,” here’s everything new we know about a potential “9 to 5” sequel.

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