According to creator Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, the film is a “backward-engineered” story of revenge. “What would it be like to take the fun, thrillery stakes of a Hitchcock movie and put it in high school?” the Florida native told Elle in July 2022. Do Revenge explores the bond between popular girl Drea (Camila Mendes) who wants to get back at her boyfriend for leaking her sex tape and transfer student Eleanor (Maya Hawke) who is outed by a girl based on a rumor. Following an unexpected run-in, the twosome decide to help one another out by seeking vengeance on each other’s bullies.
For Robinson, the main theme of the story is about not assigning labels to any one person. “I think there are different points where everyone’s the villain and everyone’s the hero in this story,” she explained. “And that is so much of what growing up is. I wanted to make something that paints with all the colors of adolescence.” The producer, who cowrote the film with Celeste Ballard, also wanted to shine a light on the idea of being a bad person, adding, “There is the comment on, not necessarily cancel culture, but accountability versus the way that we tear people down without the right information potentially, and the way that we lift people up without the right information potentially.”
She continued: “And then on the other side of that, it’s also [about] the way in which we deal with trauma. So, focusing on what happens and how it happens and why it happens and then how we deal with it.” Ahead of the film’s debut, Robinson warned viewers that there are plenty of surprises in store. “We want you to have a great f–king time,” she shared. “That’s what this is. That’s what it should be. We’re not trying to solve world peace. This is not some big political statement. It’s just a really fun movie that looks cool and stars a bunch of really excellent actors who are at the top of their craft and are also just gorgeous.”
