“I Love Austin Ames” Chad Michael Murray Says Teasing ‘A Cinderella Story’ Sequel

It’s been over 20 years since “A Cinderella Story” dropped its iconic “waiting for you is like waiting for rain in this drought” line, and honestly? We still haven’t recovered. Now, Chad Michael Murray is teasing the idea of stepping back into Austin Ames’ perfectly tousled hair, and Gen Z and elder millennials are suddenly screaming in the same nostalgic tone. But here’s the kicker; he doesn’t just want a basic sequel. He’s thought this one through.

And before you ask: yes, it involves Hilary Duff’s iconic character, Sam.

A Dual Cinderella Story, But Make It Layered

“As an artist, you sit and you contemplate and you think of a million stories,” Murray said, opening up about his endless stream of creative ideas while chatting with Entertainment Tonight. “It’s either a sequel to something you’ve done, a continuation, a spin-off, a new concept, a new idea, something you want to write, a graphic novel, a comic book, a movie, you know, it’s everything.” And it seems like out of all his past roles, it’s this one that keeps trying to get him back. “I love Austin Ames, and I think that’s one of the main reasons I’d want to step in his shoes again.”

And while this isn’t an “it’s happening!” moment (yet), Murray’s already built the sequel in his head. He laid out a thoughtful idea, in a Parade exclusive, where high school love didn’t go the distance, but the characters still find their way back to one another.

“I think the way that I would do it would be, as love does in high school, it doesn’t work out. Most of the time, they’ve gone separate ways. They’ve had their lives… Maybe my character [Austin] would be a teacher at this point, an English teacher back at the school, and maybe Hilary [Duff]‘s character [Sam] got married, had kids [and] it didn’t work out. And now her daughter happens to be in my class, and you do a dual Cinderella story, where she’s a little shy, and she maybe doesn’t fit in. And [my character] nurtures that. And blah, blah, blah. I think that would be something to tell.”

It’s not just sweet… it’s smart. It honors the original without rehashing it; and adds depth by showing what happens after “happily ever after.”

It Only Works If The Originals Return

Murray isn’t here for a knockoff, according to Parade. He made it clear that a sequel would need the OG cast (especially Hilary Duff). “I think if the script’s right and the story’s good, a hundred percent… and if you get the originals, the OGs — I’m getting a little old to say OG — the original cast has got to be there. Without that, I don’t think it works. You know what I mean? It feels cheap. Go make another story if that’s [the case].” And let’s be real: if we’re doing this right, Jennifer Coolidge better be back asking for more salmon.

He then shouted out the film’s lasting power saying, “I think that as we can see, there’s an audience for a lot of those movies that were out there [in the early 2000s]… still today, young girls are watching it all the time, and every time it’s on, I’m sitting there going, ‘You know what? They did a great job with this film. Hats off to everybody that was a part of this film.’ They did a great job.”

No reboot required. Just a little movie magic, a reunion we’d all lose our minds over, and maybe (finally) some metaphorical rain.