What Mamma Mia 3 Should Be About, According To The Cast
ABBA sings, but money talks. And when movies continue to earn bucks like Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again -- which quietly banked $392 million globally in tickets sold -- sequels tend to follow. So, when CinemaBlend traveled to Greece to interview the Mamma Mia cast, we asked them for ideas for Mamma Mia 3, and they told us:
So far, the "younger versions of the characters" approach has bolstered one very successful Mamma Mia sequel, as Here We Go Again came up with younger versions of its core cast. If and when Mamma Mia 3 moves forward, Lily James and Jessica Keenan Wynn think it's only natural that they try that time-tested formula again, but shift the action to Central America, to explore young versions of new characters we met this time out, played by Cher and Andy Garcia.
The men of the movie went in a totally different direction. This one would be more avant garde, but if Mamma Mia 3 were to happen, the young men in the movie have some wild story pitches:
This is the best. Actors involved with franchises should think way outside the box when it comes to pitching ideas for sequels. They aren't writers. They can't dictate what happens next. And who on this great green Earth doesn't want to see a Neanderthal musical set to the music of ABBA? Or robots, moving to the beat of Take A Chance On Me?
The longer we stayed on the question, Lily James and Jessica Keenan Wynn -- who play the young Donna and Tanya, respectively, in Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again -- circled back around to an actual concept for Mamma Mia 3, and maybe triggered an idea for Mamma Mia 4 in the process. They tell CinemaBlend:
Needless to say, there are a lot of different directions that one could go with a third Mamma Mia movie. The series has already proven that it's not afraid to kill off some of its Oscar-winning pillars -- RIP, Meryl Streep's Donna, killed by a goat, of all things. And maybe instead of a wedding, the motif is a funeral for a somber Mamma Mia 3?
Why are we so sure that Mamma Mia 3 is going to happen? Basically because, over the two movies in the series, the Mamma Mia movies have earned Universal Studios a staggering $1 billion on worldwide ticket sales, which is a crazy number for a two-film musical series.
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This might give the studio pause: The first movie did $609M globally, while the sequel is currently at $392M. This might mean that interest in the franchise is fading, but that's not really a red light against moving ahead with Mamma Mia 3 if the right idea is there. Also, there are a ton of movies that would love to get to nearly $400M in ticket sales, so Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again certainly is looked at as a success. Can the studio go back to that musical well a third time and continue to strike gold?
Here's the cast, waxing poetic on what they want to see in a sequel:
CinemaBlend was lucky enough to travel to Greece to attend a beautiful press event on behalf of the Blu-ray and DVD release of the smash hit Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again. While we were there, we learned how to choreograph a massive dance sequence to the tune of ABBA's "Dancing Queen." We toured shooting locations from the actual movie. And we interviewed cast members about the success of Here We Go Again, the loss of Donna, and the future of the series.
The film reached store shelves on October 23, and is also available to stream as we speak. If you want to stay up to date on all of the movies that are opening in theaters in 2019, be sure to bookmark our release-date guide and check it often, because dates and titles change all of the time.
Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.