Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! Another sequel to “Mamma Mia!“
Speaking with Rachel Brosnahan for Interview, Amanda Seyfried said that she has “fatigue” from the constant stream of franchise releases, but there is one movie world she’d return to without hesitation.
“I’d do ‘Mamma Mia! 3’ in a heartbeat,” she said.
Otherwise, the “Long Bright River” star said she’s over sequels. “I want original content. I think it’s really scary and brave to do it. It’s not scary and not very brave to do sequels. It’s just for money and it’s frustrating,” she explained.
The idea for another ‘Mamma Mia!’ installment, though, has been kicking around for years. Seyfried herself talked about the possibility in March. “Show me the money!” she quipped to THR in a recent interview. “Producer Judy Craymer is always working on it, but Universal still has to release ‘Wicked 2.’ The first ‘Wicked’ had to stall when ‘Mamma Mia! 2’ was getting made. It’s an either/or situation with musicals. And I have this theory that Universal just knows we’re going to do it, so they’re not in any rush. And it’s just going to cost double.”
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Seyfried also told Vogue in 2023 in a feature on the original film, “I dare you to show me one person who doesn’t want a third ‘Mamma Mia!’” She lamented there, too, that it would come down to money. “I hate to say it, because would I do ‘Mamma Mia 3’ for free — of course I would — but that’s not the business we’re in. What’s fair is fair, and I feel like a third film is going to come down to something stupid like whether or not Universal wants to pay the money.”
‘Mamma Mia! Here We Got Again” was released to surprising acclaim in 2018, with some critics even comparing it to “The Godfather, Part 2” (no, seriously). In a shocking twist (7-year-old spoilers ahead) Meryl Streep‘s Donna was dead — only appearing as an angelic figure — and Lily James appeared in flashback sequences akin to Robert de Niro’s in that second “Godfather” movie. But Streep says she would still be on board for another sequel — however she might end up appearing.
“Of course I want to do it,” Streep told Deadline in May 2024 at Cannes. “[But] I don’t know how they’re going to do it. They have an idea. I haven’t heard it yet but it’s in [my calendar] and I’m going to hear about it pretty soon.” Streep also told Vogue it could be called “Grand Mamma-Mia!”
“I told Judy if she could figure out a way to reincarnate Donna, I’m into that. Or it could be like in one of those soap operas where Donna comes back and reveals it was really her twin sister that died,” Steep said in the 2023 Vogue feature. In the same article, Universal boss Donna Langley said, “Universal would love to make a third movie, and I’ll leave it at that.”
