'Mamma Mia 3' Is in Early Stages, Meryl Streep Would Return 'If the Script Is Right,' Producer Teases

Mamma Mia! franchise creator and producer Judy Craymer is teasing that a third film may be in the works very soon

Mamma Mia! franchise creator and producer Judy Craymer is teasing that a third film may be in the works very soon.

In an interview with Deadline earlier this month, Craymer, who just announced ITV's Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream talent show, said a third movie musical is in "earliest stages." She also shared that she has come up with a way to bring back Meryl Streep again.

"I don't want to over-egg it," she said of the unofficial news, "but I know there's a trilogy there."

Added Craymer, "There is a story there, and I do think Meryl should come back, and if the script is right, she would, I think, because she really loved playing Donna."

When Craymer, 65, first talked of a potential third film in 2020, Amanda Seyfried, the star of the movies, said she was on board — and at the time, she thought the rest of the star-studded cast would be too.

Related:Christine Baranski Says Getting the Men to Sing and Dance in Mamma Mia 2 Was 'Like Rocket Science'

"Listen, every single person in that movie would say yes in a heartbeat because we want to hang out with each other," Seyfried, 37, told Collider at the time. "That's what we talked about last time, like did we ever think that we'd end up here again on an Island in Croatia?"

However, she did have her reservations as far as how it would all go down musically.

"So yeah, I wish there was a Mamma Mia 3, but I'll tell you what, I've said it before and I'll say it again and I hope I'm wrong again," she added. "I don't think there are enough ABBA songs to make a third movie. Because we'd have to use 'Super Trooper' again and we'd have to use 'Mamma Mia' again and have to use them in a different way."

In 2021, she said it again, telling Stephen Colbert, "If it was up to me, yes, of course, there would be eight Mamma Mia!s. Do you know how much fun that is?"

The original 2008 hit was based on the stage production by the same name and featured Streep and Seyfried as mother and daughter living on a remote Greek island. When Seyfried's Sophie is set to get married to Dominic Cooper's Sky, she sets out to learn who her real father is after discovering it could one of three men. The three potential dads are played by Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård and Colin Firth, with Julie Walters and Christine Baransky playing Donna's best friends.

Related:Mamma Mia! Director Ol Parker Teases Possibility of Third Franchise Film: 'Wouldn't It Be Lovely?'

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the 2018 sequel, took place years later after Donna's death, with Sophie pregnant and reuniting all the characters for the grand opening of the hotel that was Donna's dream.

The sequel flipped between present time and Donna's life after college, showing how she met each of the men that could be Sophie's dad. Lily James played a young Donna, with Streep making an emotional cameo at the end. Here We Go Again also featured a cameo by Cher as Donna's estranged mother.

Ol Parker, who directed Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again told Screenrant in December that the pieces are there for a potential third installment.

"Judy Craymer, the genius producer behind the musical and the first two films, always plans for it to be a trilogy. That's all I can say," Parker said. "The first one made an enormous amount of money, and I think we made a fair amount too. I know that there is a hunger for a third, and I know that she has a plan. Wouldn't it be lovely?"

In Deadline's recent interview, Craymer also teased her new film project with Cher (whom she also hopes to have back for Mamma Mia 3). As for what it's about? "Well, it's her life. Her incredible life. I mean, she has glitter in the veins."

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