Bella Thorne is expanding her role in the long-planned Spring Breakers sequel, moving from announced cast member to the project’s writer and director while remaining one of its stars.
Thorne revealed the change during an appearance on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast. “I’m writing and directing Spring Breakers 2,” she said, confirming that her involvement now extends well beyond the role announced for her in 2025.
The development represents a major change for Spring Breakers: Salvation Mountain. Freeway filmmaker Matthew Bright was originally attached to direct, while Thorne was announced as part of a new four-woman cast.
Thorne said producers expanded her role after watching an early cut of Color Your Hurt, her feature directorial debut, and asking her to submit writing for the sequel.
Producers Expanded Her Role After Watching Her First Feature
Thorne said producers saw Color Your Hurt before giving her an opportunity to pitch material for the new film. “They asked me to write something to see if they would like it,” she told Cooper, according to Entertainment Weekly. “And they loved it.”
Her announcement supersedes the creative lineup revealed when the sequel was first unveiled in May 2025. At that time, Bright was attached to direct, with original Spring Breakers producers Chris Hanley and Jordan Gertner returning.
Neither Thorne nor the producers has publicly explained why Bright is no longer directing. Thorne is now promising a deliberately excessive movie. “Balls to the wall,” she said of reactions to the script, adding that she wants audiences to have fun watching it in a theater.
Thorne Wants to Revisit the Original’s Female Energy
The original Spring Breakers, written and directed by Harmony Korine, followed four college students who rob a restaurant to finance a spring-break trip before becoming entangled with James Franco’s drug-dealing character, Alien. Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine played the four women at the center of the movie.
Thorne said she was a major fan of the film when it arrived and even begged her manager to let her attend its premiere. She now wants her sequel to retain what she described as its strong “female energy” while reflecting a different cultural moment.
Thorne recalled the early 2010s as an especially exploitative period for young women in entertainment, pointing to the way she, Gomez, Miley Cyrus, Zendaya and other young female stars were compared against one another as the media looked for its next “bad girl.” “This time, things are different,” Thorne said.
She has not yet explained exactly how that perspective changes the sequel’s characters or plot, but she described the screenplay as packed with “craziness” and “litness.”
The Original Cast Announcement May No Longer Reflect the Final Lineup
When Spring Breakers: Salvation Mountain was announced in 2025, Thorne was set to star alongside Ariel Martin, Grace Van Dien and True Whitaker. The synopsis released at the time described four rebellious young women taking a spring-break road trip that spirals out of control, leaving them forced to outrun the chaos they created.
PEOPLE’s latest coverage confirms that Thorne remains attached to star as she takes over writing and directing duties. The new interviews, however, do not explicitly reconfirm Martin, Van Dien and Whitaker.
Thorne Would Not Reveal Whether Original Stars Will Return
Another unanswered question is whether anyone from Korine’s film could appear in the sequel. Thorne said she is “working with the original team,” but did not specify every person she meant.
Hanley and Gertner, who produced the original movie, were already confirmed as returning producers when Salvation Mountain was announced. When Cooper asked Thorne whether actors from the original film could also return, Thorne avoided answering.
“I don’t wanna get in trouble,” she said. Her response does not confirm appearances by Gomez, Hudgens, Benson, Rachel Korine, Franco or anyone else from the 2012 cast.
The Sequel Has Already Survived One Earlier False Start
This is not the first attempt to continue Spring Breakers. Producers announced a different sequel, Spring Breakers: The Second Coming, in 2014 without Korine’s involvement.
James Franco publicly attacked that proposed project at the time, arguing that it was attempting to capitalize on Korine’s work. That version never materialized.