Netflix confirms The Inbetweeners 3 is happening, and all four original stars are back, eighteen years after the show first aired

Highlights:

• Netflix has confirmed The Inbetweeners 3 has begun production in the UK, with Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison and Joe Thomas all returning as Will, Jay, Neil and Simon.
• Original creators Damon Beesley and Iain Morris are back to write and direct, the same pairing behind the second film in 2014.
• The original sitcom aired on Channel 4 between 2008 and 2010, meaning the four leads are returning to these characters nearly two decades after they first played them as teenagers.

Eighteen years is a long time to keep a promise nobody actually made. The Inbetweeners ended its Channel 4 run in 2010, and the two films that followed felt, at the time, like a proper full stop. Yet as of today, cameras are rolling in the UK on The Inbetweeners 3, and Netflix has confirmed the one thing that actually makes this news rather than just nostalgia bait: every single original lead is back.

Who's actually confirmed for this?

All four of them, which is the detail worth sitting with. Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison and Joe Thomas are reprising Will McKenzie, Jay Cartwright, Neil Sutherland and Simon Cooper, the same foursome whose disastrous school years and even more disastrous holiday romances built the show's entire identity. Getting one or two original cast members back for a legacy sequel is common enough. Getting all four, particularly this far removed from the original run, is rarer than the announcement makes it sound.

Behind the camera, it's the same story. Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, who created the show and wrote every episode of it, are returning to write and direct, having previously directed the second film together in 2014. Claire Jones produces alongside Banijay's Patrick Holland and Fudge Park's Mark Lesbirel, with a long list of executive producers rounding out a production that clearly isn't treating this as a quick cash-in.

What have the creators actually said about it?

Not much, but what they did say leaned straight into the show's own voice rather than a polished studio statement. Beesley and Morris said it had been "super-fun hanging out with our friends again," adding they'd be working hard to make sure there were no problemos finishing the film. Anyone who watched the original series will recognise that word instantly, it's a direct callback to one of the show's own running jokes, not an accident.

Why does this land differently nearly two decades on?

Where does this fit in Netflix's wider push right now?