Much like the heroines of Nancy Meyers’s 2006 rom-com, The Holiday, I would like to trade places—not with another woman from across the globe, but with the hopeful version of myself that believed a sequel to this festive classic was coming.

Late Monday night, The Sun claimed that a follow-up to Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet’s home-swapping rom-com was poised to film in 2023. “The plan is to start rolling on scenes next year, primarily in the UK and in Europe, but the main talent are all signed up and on board,” a “source” told the outlet, promising that a Christmas wish nearly 16 years in the making would come true.

Alas, Meyers and Winslet made like Rufus Sewell’s heartless Jasper and broke hearts with just a few words on Tuesday. “So many DM’s about this - sorry but it’s not true,” the film’s writer-director wrote on Instagram alongside a screenshot of a Daily Mail tweet about the reported sequel, prompting more than 1,500 solemn, even outraged comments in a matter of hours. (The official account of the Academy responded with no fewer than three crying emojis, while Katie Couric offered a broken heart.) Winslet also squashed rumors in an interview with People. “I read something about that, but it’s the first I’ve heard of it,” she said about a potential follow-up. “I promise you not an agent or a representative or anyone from the first one around has had any conversation with me about that. Hand on heart, that’s never come up.”

But The Holiday is so readily primed for a sequel, even if it doesn’t exist yet. The movie centers on two recently jilted women: commitment-phobic movie trailer maker Amanda (Diaz) and writer/expert in unrequited love Iris (Winslet). Reeling from their respective breakups, they swap homes for the holiday season. Naturally, their cross-Atlantic pining leads each woman to her ideal romantic partner—Amanda finds love with Iris’s brooding book editor brother, Graham (Jude Law), in England, while Iris makes sweet melodies with affable music composer Miles (Jack Black) in Los Angeles. The four stars share just a single scene together—a largely wordless New Year’s Eve dancing sequence that only stokes the desire for a feature-length continuation.

Questions that could be answered in a second installment abound. Did both of our newly formed couples make it work for the long haul? Is the Rosehill Cottage listed on Airbnb? Does Graham still “have a cow and sew”? How have Iris and Miles navigated a post-Blockbuster existence? Would Amanda care to explain why foreplay is “overrated”? Did Iris permanently heed Arthur’s (Eli Wallach, who died in 2014) “brutal but brilliant” advice on being the leading lady of her own life? And most importantly: When was Mr. Napkin Head officially retired?

Furthermore, many of the film’s players seem game to leap back into their cozy cashmere. Diaz has returned to acting after a lengthy hiatus, as has Lindsay Lohan, who makes a brief cameo. The professional profiles of supporting players Kathryn Hahn and John Krasinski, who played two of Amanda’s colleagues, have skyrocketed. Now fully grown, Miffy Englefield, who starred as Graham’s eldest daughter, Sophie, made a viral TikTok talking about her positive experiences on the project. And Meyers has signed on for a new Netflix film, her first feature directorial effort since 2015’s The Intern.

Perhaps no one is more surprised by The Holiday’s cultural staying power than Meyers herself, who said the movie “was not a hit” upon its initial release. (It benefited greatly from word of mouth, initially opening to $12 million before earning $205 million worldwide and becoming one of the highest-grossing romantic comedies of all time.) “So, for many years, I didn’t see it, but then audiences found it over the years,” Meyers told Vulture in 2020, later adding, “If anybody in 2006 in December, when that movie came out, told me 14 years later someone’s going to say, ‘When it’s December, you watch The Holiday—what can I tell you? Time will tell. The audience is everything.”

As evidence of this legacy, on Saturday there was a London screening of the film with a live orchestra performance of Hans Zimmer’s score, which Meyers posted clips from on Instagram. If fellow mid-2000s romantic comedies like The Princess Diaries and Legally Blonde can yield sequels more than a decade later, what’s to stop The Holiday from following suit? As Jack Black’s Miles mystically promises: “Legend has it, when the Santa Anas blow, anything can happen.”