Mamma Mia! Here we go again...well, maybe.
In 2020, Judy Craymer, a producer behind the two film adaptations of Mamma Mia! as well as the original stage production, revealed that the movies are "meant to be a trilogy." During an interview with the Daily Mail, she shared that she'd been working on Mamma Mia 3 before the coronavirus pandemic hit, but found it hard to focus under lockdown.
“I was meant to have been getting on with that, in my head, during these months. But then I got hit with COVID fog,” she said. “I think one day there will be another film, because there’s meant to be a trilogy, you see. I know Universal would like me to do it.”
In a new interview with Variety in October 2023, Craymer said she was "sure" Mamma Mia 3 "will happen." Here's what we know about a potential third chapter in Donna and Sophie's story so far:
Nothing official has been announced.
In December 2022, director Ol Parker hinted at Craymer's plans for the trilogy. "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. 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?" he told Screen Rant.
In May 2023, Craymer told Deadline, "It’s in its earliest stages," but nothing is "official." She continued, "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."
Craymer says it could include new songs by ABBA.
The previous two films have utilized most of ABBA's best-known hits—think "The Winner Takes It All," "Take a Chance on Me," and "S.O.S."—but per the Daily Mail, Craymer "wanted to use the four new ABBA numbers Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus have written for the virtual concert they’ve planned with Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad" in the third film.
It's unclear if the original cast will return.
Craymer didn't hint when the third film would fall chronologically, or if she was writing it with stars Meryl Streep, Lily James, and Amanda Seyfried in mind.
Streep, however, would love to return. "I’m up for anything," she told Vogue in an oral history of Mamma Mia published in September 2023. "I’ll have to schedule a knee scoping before we film, but if there’s an idea that excites me, I’m totally there. 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."
Seyfried, too, would definitely be interested in returning to the role of Sophie. "Listen, every single person in that movie would say yes in a heartbeat because we want to hang out with each other," she told Collider. "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? So yeah, I wish there was a Mamma Mia 3."
In the aforementioned oral histroy in Vogue, Seyfried shared, "Nobody is saying no, but nobody is saying yes either. 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." Streep added, "We may have to call it Grand-Mamma Mia! by the time we make it!"
Seyfried has also said, "If it were up to me, there would be eight Mamma Mias. Do you know how much fun that is?"
As the digital director for Town & Country, Caroline Hallemann covers culture, entertainment, and a range of other subjects
Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.
