Zoom Into These Stellar Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century Facts
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Originally appeared on E! Online
Zoom, zoom zoom on over because this news will make your nostalgic heart go boom, boom.
Twenty-five years ago, the Disney Channel Original Movie Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century blasted onto viewers' screens. And if you can't remember the exact plotline, sweat minor because we've got you covered.
Set in the not-so-distant future (we're talking 25 years from now at this point), the DCOM follows Kirsten Storms' character Zenon Kar. The 13-year-old lives onboard a space station with her scientist parents and her BFFs—including pal Nebula (Raven-Symoné). Like a typical teen, Zenon attends school, loves music (especially the Proto Zoa-led rock band Microbe) and can sometimes get into trouble.
However, she receives a punishment major—being grounded to Earth—after she's accused of breaking into the space station's memory bank while spying on two men from the ship's parent company, who she suspects are up to no good. While on the planet, she stays with her Aunt Judy (Holly Fulger), develops a crush on schoolmate Greg (Gregory Smith) and tries to figure out how to get back to the space station before the men's sinister plan destroys the ship.
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And while it may feel like we're light-years ahead from when the film premiered, it will always hold a special place in fans' heart.
"I love that this movie stuck along for so long," Kirsten told PeopleTV during a 2020 cast reunion. "And now, people are playing it for their kids, which I think is really cool."
Cetus-Lupeedus, you totally want to rewatch it now don't you? Well before you get sucked into a black hole of binge-watching and playing "Supernova Girl" on repeat, celebrate the anniversary with 25 out-of-this-world facts about the film.
1. Debuting on Disney Channel on Jan. 23, 1999, Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century was the sixth Disney Channel Original movie to be released following Northern Lights, Under Wraps, You Lucky Dog, Brink! and Halloweentown.
2. Say morning glorious to the story that started it all. That’s right, the film was inspired by the 1996 book Zenon: Girl of the Twenty-First Century by Marilyn Sadler.
3. The commander of this ship—a.k.a. the movie’s director—was Kenneth Johnson, whose other work includes the DCOM Don’t Look Under the Bed, the TV show The Bionic Woman and the sci-fi franchise Alien Nation.
4. Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century is set in the year 2049. Ready for a shock major? That’s only 25 years away!
5. Kirsten Storms was clearly destined for the stars. While this was her first lead role, it wouldn’t be her last. In addition to appearing in two more Zenon movies—of course we’re talking about The Zequel and Z3—Kirsten acted on hit shows like Days of Our Lives and General Hospital.
6. Although, she didn’t land the role of Zenon right away.
“I went in seven or eight times for the part,” she told PeopleTV during a 2020 virtual cast reunion. “They really, obviously, were taking their time trying to figure out who was going to play Zenon. I just remember auditioning so many times for it and was super excited when I got the call that I had booked the part.”
7. In fact, Kenneth originally wanted to cast Raven Symoné—who portrayed Zenon’s BFF Nebula—in the starring role as she had more acting experience.
“I really wanted Raven to play the lead 'cause Raven was proven and a commodity,” the filmmaker said on a 2021 episode of The Kulturecast. “She’d been acting since she was, like, 3 years old.”
8. Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century was Raven’s first Disney Channel Original Movie, and she continued to rocket into fame. Not only did she appear in Z3, but she also starred on the Disney series That’s So Raven and The Cheetah Girls movies.
9. All Zenon movies were written by Stu Krieger—and you won’t have to search the galaxy far and wide to find his other work. Some of his other DCOMs include Smart House, Phantom of the Megaplex, Gotta Kick It Up! and Going to the Mat. He’s also penned films like The Land Before Time, A Troll in Central Park and Monkey Trouble.
10. So yes, you can thank him for all the out-of-this-world lingo in the Zenon movies. As for how he came up with “Cetus-Lupeedus?” (And yup, that’s how you really spell it.)
“Zenon grew up on the space station,” Stu explained in one of his TikToks. “All she could see outside her windows were the stars and the constellations—including Cetus, which means whale in English. So, her catchphrase was 'Cetus-Lupeedus'. That’s c-e-t-u-s-l-u-p-e-e-d-u-s.”
11. And while Kirsten said she doesn’t have a favorite catchphrase, there were many lunarious lines from the movie that she loved.
“I think all of her lingo, obviously, was so unique,” the actress told PeopleTV. “I like 'sweat minor’ a lot and saying anything 'major.’”
12. While Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century is based on the book of the same name, Stu also drew inspiration from another story. As he noted in another social media video, he got the writing job for the movie by pitching the concept to Disney as “Eloise at the Plaza on a space station."
13. To give the script a more futuristic feel, Stu met with scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.
“I went to the JPL and just sat with a bunch of different scientists throughout the day and said, ‘What are you working on? What kind of things?’ I had specific questions about,” the writer recalled on TikTok. “For me, it was always extrapolating if we’re here now, where are we gonna be in X amount of years? And so, a lot of the technology was based on things that they talked about that they were working on.”
He also turned to his inner child. “Because the Disney Channel movies are basically kid wish-fulfillment movies,” he added, “it was like, 'If I was a kid, what were the things that I would love to have?’”
14. The cast and crew really had to zoom, zoom, zoom around the world to film the movies. The first Zenon movie was shot in Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. Meanwhile, The Zequel was filmed in New Zealand and Z3 was done in South Africa.
15. Actually, they filmed some of Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century at the place where Gregory Smith—who played Zenon’s Earthly crush Greg—really went to high school.
“Because we shot it at my high school during the summer break, they let a bunch of my friends be extras,” the actor—who later starred on Everwood and Rookie Blue—shared with PeopleTV. “So in all those scenes, that’s all the kids that I palled around with growing up.”
16. Greg wasn’t the only main connection Zenon formed on Earth. She also bonded with her beloved Aunt Judy, played by Holly Fulger. And it looks like the actress embodied several of her character's qualities—including her fear of flying.
“That role for me was so much what I’m like, which was odd,” she said on The Kulturecast. “Just hating to fly and just kind of quirky and fun. That’s how I raised my kids. I’m very much Aunt Judy-like.”
17. “Supernova Girl”—the song performed by rockstar Proto Zoa (Phillip Rhys) of the band Microbe—was written by Kristian Rex and Sabelle Breer. And they have pretty stellar résumés. Kristian also did the theme song for the TV series Smart Guy starring Tahj Mowry, and Sabelle has worked with artists like Avril Lavigne and Ryan Cabrera.
18. Phillip didn’t have a lot of time to practice the song before performing it for the space station concert scene.
“I think I got the song maybe the night before,” the actor told PeopleTV. “The choreographer was, I think, Michael Jackson’s choreographer.”
And, admittedly, dancing wasn’t exactly Phillip’s forte. “I’m not much of a dancer,” he continued. “I had two left feet. So I was trying to remember the song that I’d just been given plus these dance moves.”
19. While it’s hard to imagine Proto Zoa without his signature spikes, the ‘do wasn’t always part of the plan.
“I wanted to do something different, so we did the peroxide blonde thing, spiky hair thing,” Phillip added. “It wasn’t written that way actually.”
20. If you’ve orbited through all the Zenon movies, then you know Phillip was in the first and second films but not the third. The reason?
“I was shooting Nip/Tuck at the time, and…I was committed to it,” Phillip told HuffPost in 2018. “It was Ryan Murphy’s first big thing, and I just couldn’t leave, really.”
As a result, Nathan Anderson replaced him for Z3. And it looks like Phillip is a fan.
"I met him via a friend, and he’s a lovely guy," he added. "That’s not easy taking over the role. He’s American. He had to do an English accent as well. That’s tough, just not fair.”
21. “Supernova Girl” wasn’t the only soundtrack hit. Along with Donald Markowitz, Stu wrote “The Galaxy Is Ours” for The Zequel—noting it’s the only songwriting credit in his career.
22. Forget space suits. Costume designer Linda Matheson brought out the neon and spandex for Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century. And for The Zequel and Z3, the looks were done by Mona May, who was also the costume designer for Clueless, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion and Enchanted.
23. If the pull for more Zenon content is stronger than gravity, you may be interested to know there were allegedly plans for an in-theater movie and TV show.
“There was talk of actually doing a Zenon series and a Zenon movie,” Stuart Pankin—a.k.a. Commander Plank—said on a 2020 episode of the Back to the Best podcast. “Something happened, horrible, that prevented that. It might have been 9/11. I don’t know what it was. But something put the kibosh on those plans.”
24. If you want to rewatch the Zenon movies, you can blast on over to Disney+. In fact, Kirsten said her daughter Harper, 10, watched the film for the first time at age 5.
“I think, obviously, she was a little young to understand the storyline,” she shared with PeopleTV, “but she was really excited to see me on TV because she’d not seen me in anything before.”
25. And Kirsten’s performance was so good, Harper initially thought her mom was actually Zenon offscreen.
“We did have to clear up some confusion about the fact that I wasn’t really Zenon in real life,” she continued. “She thought when I left her, I went to be Zenon.”
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