Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried are open to starring in Mamma Mia 3 and they recently opened up about what it would take for the film to become a reality.
“I’m up for anything,” she told Vogue in an interview conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike. “I’ll have to schedule a knee-scoping before we film, but if there’s an idea that excites me, I’m totally there.”
Fans of the film franchise may remember that Streep’s character Donna died of cancer in the sequel titled Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. However, Streep is completely down to reprising her role as Donna she suggested two ways her character could come back to life for the third part.
“I told [producer] Judy [Craymer] if she could figure out a way to reincarnate Donna, I’m into that,” Streep added. “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.”
Craymer had other suggestions adding, “We still don’t really know what happened to Lily James’s version of Donna in those middle years. Or what happens to Donna and Sam after the first movie.”
In the same oral history, Seyfried weighed in on making a third film and said everyone would be down to make it happen and it all comes down to budget.
“Nobody is saying no, but nobody is saying yes either,” Seyfried said. “The powers that be probably can’t afford us to be honest. 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 gonna come down to something stupid like whether or not Universal wants to pay the money.”
Universal Pictures Chairman Donna Langley said the studio “would love to make a third movie,” but didn’t add more details.
Producer Gary Goetzman was more optimistic about doing a third Mamma Mia and noted, “We already went through this with the second one—everybody was a little hesitant and then the big idea came along. There’ve been some conversations and it seems like every actor is dying to put their spandex back on again, so I really think it’ll happen.”