It seems 2025 is finally the year for millennials.
While we're often (depressingly) told to stop buying avocado toast in order to afford a house, we've been granted some light relief with many of our favourite movie icons making a comeback.
Scroll on to see some of our favourite – and among most iconic and nostalgic – names who are back and better than ever.
Jennifer Love Hewitt
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Jennifer Love Hewitt's comeback in 2025 is one of the biggest and most thrilling for movie fans.
The actress, now 46, was a child star before becoming a teen and millennial movie icon, and also embarked on a successful solo music career.
She's known for shows including Party of Five, and The Byrds of Paradise, and in the late '90s appeared in movies including the iconic slasher I Know What You Did Last Summer (IKWYDLS).
In the early noughties, she starred in the Enrique Iglesias Hero film clip and the film Heartbreakers.
She's since had success with The Ghost Whisperer, The Client List and 9-1-1, and married and started a family, but has absolutely thrilled fans as she reprised her role as Julie James in the 2025 IKWYDLS sequel.
Her recent red carpet appearances for the film, with new red hair, have had the internet abuzz.
Hewitt, 46, told Extra TV in a new interview that when shooting the first and second films in the late '90s, she was accidentally hooked – once in the eye, causing her to go "blind", and in the ankle.
"I think people didn't know, or don't know, that I actually got hurt on both movies with the actual hook," she said, explaining it was a "real hook" and not "plastic".
Sarah Michelle Gellar
I couldn't believe the cheers coming from the audience when Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar made a brief surprise cameo in the new IKWYDLS film, reprising her role as beauty queen Helen Shivers.
As I noted in my review of the movie, not many films make the crowd burst out in applause while watching these days – and that says it all.
"As an actor, you hope that some of your projects stand the test of time and that people want to revisit them," Gellar recently told 9honey in an exclusive chat.
"I'm just really fortunate that I have so many that people still know and love."
And talking about the Buffy reboot, she said: "We will not show it or bring it to the world until we are 100 per cent sure we are doing it right, and it's all there – so just be patient is what I can say."
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Freddie Prinze Jr.
Gellar's husband Freddie Prinze Jr. also is back, reprising his role as Ray Bronson in the IKWYDLS franchise for the 2025 film.
He was (and still is) a heartthrob and is known for his roles in movies including Scooby-Doo, She's All That and Head Over Heels.
The couple recently thrilled fans as they hit the red carpet together in LA for the premiere of IKWYDLS.
Lindsay Lohan
OK yes, Lindsay Lohan technically took a break from the spotlight and recently returned.
But this year, she's back with a bang and millennials are eagerly awaiting the release of Freakier Friday on August 2 (in Australia), a sequel to 2003's hit Freaky Friday.
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Before her break, during which she married and started a family, the actress, 38, was known for films including 1998's The Parent Trap, Just My Luck and Mean Girls.
She even had a successful stint as a pop star.
Chad Michael Murray
Chad Michael Murray was arguably everyone's teen crush growing up, thanks to roles in films including A Cinderella Story, and shows like Gilmore Girls and One Tree Hill.
He's back in the spotlight thanks to Sullivan's Crossing, and is coming back to his iconic role in Freakier Friday.
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Josh Hartnett
Hartnett, 47, is another millennial heartthrob who's returned to the screen.
In the '90s and noughties, he won over fans with roles in movies including Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down.
"It was never my intention to be a heartthrob," he recently told Variety.
This year, he's appeared in TV hit The Bear and has more projects lined up.
Hartnett lives in the British countryside with wife Tamsin Egerton.
Adam Brody
Adam Brody won over hearts in The O.C in the 2000s as the geeky but loveable Seth Cohen.
He went on to star in the likes of Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Ready or Not.
But his latest work, Nobody Wants This, opposite Kristen Bell, put him back in the spotlight recently, with people falling in love with his character in this romance series.
He and wife Leighton Meester, known for Gossip Girl, are the perfect pairing in every millennial's eyes and they've recently been spotted at numerous Hollywood events together.
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Title: From Jennifer Love Hewitt to Sarah Michelle Gellar and Josh Hartnett: The millennial movie icon renaissance is upon us
Sourced From: celebrity.nine.com.au/latest/millennial-movie-icons-making-a-comeback/db07e81a-188e-461b-ae9f-5b57e2963180
Published Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2025 04:07:00 GMT
