New Inbetweeners film confirmed but one key star is missing

The Inbetweeners 3: Netflix confirms third movie to continue UK coming of age franchise

The hit comedy franchise will pick up more than 12 years after the last big screen instalment … but one star is missing from the cast.

Netflix has revealed that production on a third movie instalment of hit coming of age comedy franchise, The Inbetweeners has begun.

The streaming giant announced that the four main actors, Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison and Joe Thomas would return to their characters of WIll McKenzie, Jay Cartwright, Neil Sutherland and Simon Cooper, which first aired on the UK’s Channel 4 in 2008.

The duo behind the show Damon Beesley and Iain Morris will also be back to write and direct the movie, which will see the characters resume their lives after the franchise’s second record-breaking big screen instalment, which followed the quartet on a backpacking holiday Down Under in 2014.

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However, The Sun reports that Emily Atack, who played key character Charlotte “Big Jugs” Hinchcliffe in the Channel 4 series, is yet to be listed among the actors returning to the cast.

The character of Hinchcliffe also was not included in the second movie, raising further doubts about her comeback to the original Inbetweeners team.

In a statement from Netflix, executive producer Damon Beesley and Morris said “It’s been super-fun hanging out with our friends again, and we’re going to work hard every week to ensure there are no problemos making this new film for humans.”

The statement confirmed that production began on Monday.

The sitcom was originally broadcast on Channel 4 between 2008 and 2010. It followed the misadventures of suburban teenager Will and his pals Simon, Neil and Jay at the fictional Rudge Park Comprehensive as they navigated school life, friendship and failed sexual encounters.

Over three series it set new ratings records for the channel and won multiple awards. Two hugely successful Film4-backed movies followed, released in 2011 and 2014 respectively. The first went straight in at No.1 in the box office and set a record for the biggest opening weekend for a UK comedy at the time of its release with the sequel also breaking box office records.

Apart from Hinchcliffe’s presence, the other big question about the new instalment will likely be the depictions of the protagonists in their 30s, given they were roughly 16 or so when the series first aired 18 years ago.