Zoey 102 Director Tells All: Was That Cake Real? Where Was Victoria Justice? And What’s Next for the Franchise?

Now streaming on Paramount+, the Zoey 101 reunion movie answers every question you didn’t know you’ve been harboring since the Nickelodeon comedy ended its run 15 years ago. And even if you don’t consider yourself an honorary graduate of Pacific Coast Academy, Zoey 102 is still a pretty wild (not to mention self-driving) ride.

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“I wanted us to do this for the fans, but I also want anybody to be able to tune in and just say, ‘Oh, that’s a great rom-com,’” director Nancy Hower tells TVLine of the script by Monica Sherer and Madeline Whitby.

The movie follows 30-something Zoey (Jamie Lynn Spears), now a work-obsessed reality TV producer. Hopelessly single, and even more hopelessly hung up on her high school ex-boyfriend Chase (Sean Flynn), Zoey hires an actor (Dean Geyer) to play her boyfriend at her BFF Quinn’s (Erin Sanders) wedding to longtime love Logan (Matthew Underwood).

Spoiler alert: Zoey and Chase, who is also lying about having a girlfriend, decide to give their relationship another try; Zoey finally lands the promotion of her dreams; and Quinn and Logan eventually tie the knot on the PCA campus, following a disastrous first ceremony.

But while Zoey 102 ends with most of its loose ends tied in a neat little bow, we were left with questions. Fortunately, Hower was more than happy to give us some answers.

Grade Zoey 102 in our poll below, then read on for Hower’s responses to our burning questions about the movie… and beyond. When you’re done, drop a comment with your own questions about the Zoey 101 reunion movie.

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Was that cake of Logan and Quinn real?

Admit it: In this world of increasingly deceptive desserts, you totally wondered whether the cake version of Logan and Quinn was actually edible. With great sorrow, and with even greater hunger, we must confirm that it was, in fact, not a real cake.

“We tried to get a real one made by one of those people from, like, Is It Cake? And they were like, ‘Yeah, we’ll do it for $50,000.’ So ultimately we had to do it as a mold that we cut out, but I wish it was a real cake.”

Wasn’t Stacey the real villain of this movie?

Zoey’s big apology speech at the end of the movie implies that she accepts most of the blame for Quinn and Logan’s first wedding going down in flames, but let’s be real — did Stacey really need to publicly accuse Todd/Hugo of being the Malibu Murderer in the middle of the ceremony, especially since she was the literal officient?

“It’s hysterical because I used to say, ‘You know, Stacey is just as much at fault here,’” Hower says. “But I don’t think it was just about the wedding. Zoey was kind of a no-show all weekend at different moments. Zoey’s her best friend, and she’s been kind of checked out for a while. But since she’s Zoey, she’s trying her best. She’s that person who’s like, ‘I’m going to do 12 things at once at make it work.’ Usually it does, but not this time.”

Hower adds that Stacey’s chosen moment to (falsely) accuse Zoey’s date of being a serial killer was also perfectly in line with the original series’ broader tone, for which she offers kudos to writers Sherer and Whitby.

Was that really Sean Flynn singing karaoke?

Anyone who’s seen Glee knows that Dean Geyer has a set of pipes as lovely as his eyes, so we weren’t surprised when Todd — sorry, Hugo — volunteered to sing karaoke. We were, however, surprised when Chase matched him note for note, so we had to ask Hower if Flynn was really singing or merely lip syncing for his life. Turns out it was the latter.

“Sean really could have sung that high part, but we had very little time, he had just landed and we had to shoot it,” she says. “So it’s not him singing, but it could have been. I feel bad, because I wanted to record it, but we didn’t have enough time. It was just one of those things.”

How hard was it to pull off that lift?

And what would a performance of “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” be without that iconic lift from the end of Dirty Dancing? The boys came through for us in the end, and you’d better be appreciative, because pulling off that trick was no easy task.

“It was a wire stunt, so that was probably the hardest stunt we had for anything, because we had to sort of rewire the entire building,” Hower says. “And while we were shooting it, there was a fire or something upstairs, and we all got thrown out on the street for a couple of hours. That was probably one of our hardest days, but it all worked out.”

Was any of that filmed at the original PCA?

Quinn and Logan’s second wedding at Pacific Coast Academy was everything, but if you thought that was the actual location used on the original show, we’ve got some bad news.

“We built that entire set on the lot in Wilmington where we shot most of the movie,” Hower explains. “We built it from the ground up, so that was an entirely new set. And I think they ended up having to destroy it at the end of the shoot, because I think that studio was sold.” Tragic!

What’s the story behind that self-driving car?

No viewer went into this movie expecting so much of the plot to involve a self-driving car with a mind of its own, but that possessed Pontiac is now an honorary member of the PCA crew. And it has a fun little story behind it.

“I probably shouldn’t say this, but they originally wrote it as a Tesla, and I was like, ‘I think we ought to make this a car that we can really make fun of and do whatever we want.’ I can’t tell you how many iterations of that car we went through until we were like, ‘Well, Pontiac doesn’t exist anymore!’ So we bought this old Pontiac and redid it and everyone was like, ‘Nancy, it’s going to cost so much money.’ And I was like, ‘No, you could sell it for so much more when we’re done!’”

Why didn’t we see Victoria Justice’s Lola?

Unfortunately, not every member of the PCA crew was able to make it to Quinn and Logan’s nuptials, including Victoria Justice’s Lola, who was only briefly mentioned when Chase’s date mistook her for Zoey. Her absence, as it turns out, all came down to scheduling.

“She totally tried to do it,” Hower says. “In fact, there was a part written for her, but I think she was touring or something. This was such a giant cast. We had to fly people in on certain days and we just couldn’t make it work with her schedule.”

That said, there’s still a chance we’ll get to see Justice reprise one of her two classic Nickelodeon characters, depending on where the franchise goes from here.

“I’m praying that we get to do this again, and that we could get her back for that, because they had a really funny storyline for her that I won’t give away,” Hower adds.

What’s next, Zoey 103?

Hower believes there’s still plenty of story to be mined from Zoey’s friend group after this movie, and she’s manifesting a healthy future for the franchise.

“My hope would be that we do another movie and then launch a series from it,” she says.

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