Amanda Seyfried has admitted she doesn’t think a third Mamma Mia! film is on the cards, even though she and her co-stars would all be up for making one.
Vogue recently published an oral history of the ABBA-based big-screen musical, which ended with several key figures from the franchise being asked about another sequel.
The Mean Girls star made no secret of her hopes for a third Mamma Mia! film, telling the magazine: “I dare you to show me one person who doesn’t want a third Mamma Mia!.”
Even Meryl Streep, whose character was killed off ahead of the second film, expressed enthusiasm, joking: “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 [Craymer, the film’s producer] 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.”
However, Amanda later added: “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.”
Meanwhile, Universal Pictures’ chairman Donna Langley said simply: “Universal would love to make a third movie, and I’ll leave it at that.”
Talk of a third Mamma Mia! film has been going on since the sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again! hit cinemas in 2018.
At the time, Amanda said of the idea: “I feel there is enough ABBA music [for a third film] for sure. But I’m gonna say the same thing I said 10 years ago: I don’t f***ing think so.”