Lindsay Lohan is going back to the 2000s for her next Netflix romance, and one of the people behind the camera helped define that period of her career.
Lohan will star opposite Henry Golding in Return to You, a romance set in 2008 and directed by Mark Waters. Waters previously directed Lohan in 2003’s Freaky Friday and 2004’s Mean Girls, making the new movie their first feature together in 22 years.
The film also continues Lohan’s recent relationship with Netflix, but this time she is taking on another role behind the scenes.
Netflix confirms that Lohan is producing as well as starring, with Eric Champnella writing the screenplay and Brad Krevoy producing alongside her.
‘Return to You’ Starts With a DVD Sent to the Wrong Woman
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Lohan plays a powerful but lonely attorney who mistakenly receives an emotional DVD recorded by a dying woman for her husband, played by Golding. Guided only by the clues on the disc, she sets out to find the man the recording was meant to reach.
That setup would work differently in a present-day story built around texts, social media and instant digital searches. Here, the physical DVD becomes the mystery that sends Lohan’s character looking for Golding’s, giving the movie both its romantic premise and its late-2000s setting.
Netflix has only announced Lohan and Golding so far and says additional cast members will be revealed later. The streamer has not announced a release date, but it separately confirmed on social media that Return to You is now in production.
Lohan and Waters Had Already Talked About Working Together Again
The reunion did not come completely out of nowhere. Waters directed Lohan through two of the most recognizable films from the first stage of her career, first with Freaky Friday and then with Mean Girls one year later. He did not return to direct 2025’s Freakier Friday, which was instead helmed by Nisha Ganatra.
Waters said around that sequel’s release that he and Lohan had remained friendly and recently reconnected while she was working in New York.
Speaking about the possibility of working together again, he told E! News, “When we hung out recently, we did say it would be fun to find an excuse to do something together.”
PEOPLE noted that Return to You now provides exactly that opportunity, reuniting Lohan and Waters for a third feature more than two decades after Mean Girls.
Netflix Is Familiar Territory for Both of Them
Lohan has already built a substantial second act with Netflix. She starred in Falling for Christmas, Irish Wish and Our Little Secret, and Netflix now lists Return to You as her next romance for the service.
Waters has been working in the same space from behind the camera. Netflix’s official announcement notes that he directed He’s All That, Mother of the Bride and La Dolce Villa for the streamer before signing on to reunite with Lohan.
The project also brings back another familiar collaborator. Brad Krevoy, who produced Lohan’s Netflix movies Falling for Christmas and Irish Wish, is producing with Lohan. Olivia Krevoy, Jimmy Townsend and Galen Fletcher are executive producers.
Lohan Is Taking a Bigger Role Behind the Camera
Producing Return to You also continues a change Lohan has described in how she approaches her projects. In recent years, she has spoken about wanting to be involved earlier in development rather than arriving only to perform a finished script.
That makes her producer credit on Return to You more than an incidental addition. MPCA, Brad Krevoy’s production company, confirms that Lohan is producing the film alongside Krevoy while starring opposite Golding.
Netflix announced the project on Sept. 28 with a photo of Lohan holding the script and said she and Golding were already in production. Current production reporting places principal photography in Toronto beginning that same day.
EW reports that no release date has been announced, leaving the 2008 setting, two leads and Lohan-Waters reunion as the main details Netflix is revealing for now.