Meryl Streep is in for Mamma Mia! 3. The 74-year-old Oscar winner confirmed in a Vogue oral history of the 2008 musical film that she would happily return for the next sequel. “I’m up for anything,” Meryl said in the piece published Sept. 12. “I’ll have to schedule a knee scoping before we film, but if there’s an idea that excites me, I’m totally there,” she added.
But there’s one big problem with Meryl appearing in Mamma Mia! 3. Her character, Donna Sheridan, died before the events of the 2018 sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, which follows Donna’s daughter Sophie (played by Amanda Seyfried) reopening Hotel Villa Donna in her honor. Lily James plays a young Donna in flashbacks while Meryl only makes a cameo at the end of the movie.
However, Meryl told Vogue she thinks they can find a loophole to bring back Donna. “I told [producer Judy Craymer] if she could figure out a way to reincarnate Donna, I’m into that,” Meryl said. “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. We may have to call it Grand-Mamma Mia! by the time we make it!”
Meryl also explained that she decided to join the original Mamma Mia! once she saw the Broadway musical after the 9/11 attacks. She said the musical was “an important piece for me and my family at the time” after the “traumatic” terrorist attacks, and because of that she couldn’t turn down appearing in director Phyllida Lloyd‘s movie remake.
“I remember my agent calling me to discuss three offers that he thought were quite interesting. They all sounded very heavy and serious, and then at the end of the call he said, ‘Oh, and I almost forgot to mention — you’re probably gonna laugh — but the people from Mamma Mia! want you. I’ll let them know it’s a pass.’ I perked up and said, ‘Oh, God, no, I wanna do that!” Meryl said.
The rest of the Mamma Mia! cast — including Amanda Seyfried, Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgard, and Dominic Cooper — confirmed that they’d return for a third film as well. “I dare you to show me one person who doesn’t want a third Mamma Mia!“ Amanda said to Vogue.
Producer Judy Craymer also wants the movie to happen. “If I had my way, Mamma Mia 3 would be in the can already. There has to be another one because people want it,” she said. “The trouble is we’re all getting older, and in the world of Mamma Mia!, things take their time. But we couldn’t be in a better place as far as having a cast who are eager to do it.”