Five Netflix movies starring iconic millennial actors
Do you know which generation grew up the fastest?
It wasn’t the boomers, or Gen X, or the ones glued to their phones now. It was the millennials. The same kids who grew up right as the world decided to speed up. They went from VHS tapes to streaming, from movie posters on their bedroom walls to watching those same faces appear again, decades later, on the Netflix home screen.
And with them, cinema grew too. They watched it change from hand-painted sets to green screens and now to artificial intelligence. If you think about it, not just the fans, but millennial actors also grew up with their fans. We’re talking about household names of the 1990s – Lindsay Lohan, Zac Efron, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kirsten Dunst, Rachael Leigh Cook… all of them, practically lived inside the posters of a ’90s kid.
The better part is that they didn’t fade away with time. Instead, they evolved. While some turned into serious performers, others turned into icons who reappear every few years like old friends. And the best part? They are still here, doing work that feels different but recognisable.
Netflix seems to know that nostalgia can be a key ingredient in any hit today. All it needs is the right cast. With these five films, Netflix proves that the millennial era of film never really ended. It just evolved.
Five Netflix movies starring iconic millennial actors
I Know What You Did Last Summer (Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, 2025)
Back in the day, this was the movie everyone whispered about at sleepovers. I mean, what’s not to whisper about? You have a car accident, four friends, and a body they swore they’d never talk about. Things get messy when, years later, they receive the message that changes everything: I know what you did last summer. That one line made Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr, and Sarah Michelle Gellar millennial horror royalty.
The 2025 revival picks up two decades later. The same friends are still in that small coastal town, pretending it was all a teenage mistake. Then a new generation with Tyriq Withers, Chase Sui Wonders, and Madelyn Cline comes across their secret, and the cycle starts again. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson keeps it grounded in guilt. This version isn’t about running from a killer; it’s about what happens when you finally stop running. Seeing Hewitt and Prinze Jr back together feels surreal. Sure, it makes you feel older, but it also reminds you why they ruled the horror scene in the first place. One heck of a watch.
A Tourist’s Guide to Love (Steven K Tsuchida, 2023)
Rachael Leigh Cook showing up in a Netflix rom-com feels like a full-circle moment. Do you remember the time when she used to be the face of high-school romance before half of us even knew what heartbreak meant? Now, in A Tourist’s Guide to Love, she plays Amanda, who’s a travel executive who gets sent to Vietnam for work right after her breakup because, of course, her boss thinks a little international “field research” will fix her.
And surprisingly, it kind of does. You see, it has that typical late ’90s rom-com energy where the female leads were “figuring it out”. Not too logical, just feel-good moral-boosting stuff. She meets a tour guide who isn’t her type on paper but slowly becomes exactly that. The film is bright and warm and has that old-school sincerity that never needed irony to feel good. It is also a reminder that Cook was never just “the girl from She’s All That” but the standard for every rom-com lead that came after.
Don’t Look Up (Adam McKay, 2021)
You know what’s funny about Don’t Look Up? It’s when Leonardo DiCaprio finally stopped trying to look cool. He plays this nervous guy, mumbling about data, and it’s the most believable he’s probably ever been. He plays this scientist who discovers a comet heading straight for Earth, and instead of anyone listening, the world just… tweets about it. Jennifer Lawrence is right there beside him, done with everyone, and honestly, she looks like the only sane person left.
The film’s ridiculous. Everyone is shouting, the planet is about to end, and you can still tell who is thinking about their camera angle. But that’s what makes it fun to watch. It’s that movie that says everything you already know about the world and still gets away with it. And Leo, the same guy who once made people cry in Titanic, now looks like he needs a nap and a therapist. That’s growth, I guess.
Irish Wish (Janeen Damian, 2024)
Remember when everyone thought Lindsay Lohan was gone for good? Like, the headlines, the court dates, and the whole Hollywood spiral that made people forget how good she actually was? And then enters Irish Wish. With this film, Lohan proved that she is still here. She plays Maddie, a book editor watching her best friend marry the guy she is secretly in love with. One impulsive wish later, she wakes up in an alternate life: the one where she gets the guy, but maybe not the peace she wanted.
It’s a classic Lohan movie with a little drama and total fiction. The film is simple, but she makes it feel bigger. You can tell she is not chasing her old fame anymore. Our darling Mean Girl is just happy to be back. Watching her here feels so emotional, like seeing someone who once ruled your TV winning her place back.
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (Joe Berlinger, 2019)
Zac Efron playing Ted Bundy sounded like a really bad joke when it was first announced. Like, the High School Musical guy? Seriously? The abs, the smile, the charm? But then you watch it, and it surprisingly makes sense. He’s too perfect and polite and too good at pretending to be normal. Wait, that’s exactly what Ted Bundy was, wasn’t he?
Director Joe Berlinger doesn’t show the murders in the film. Instead, he shows the performance of Ted Bundy and how someone that clean-cut could convince the world he wasn’t a monster. Efron plays that line scarily well. You catch yourself almost believing him, which is the whole point. It’s the role that finally broke the teen-idol curse for him. No more basketballs for Zack, please.