During a roundtable interview with Steven Soderbergh and Zoe Kravitz about their new upcoming film KIMI, in which Collider took part, the director briefly spoke about the highly-anticipated upcoming third installment to the Magic Mike story, titled Magic Mike's Last Dance. Soderbergh also talked about encouraging Channing Tatum to pursue the story that is, in part, inspired by Tatum's own past as a stripper in Tampa, Florida.
Soderbergh directed Magic Mike, which came out in 2012. The film was a smash hit amongst audiences and critics, who not only praised the sex appeal and dance sequences but the script, the directing, and the performances to boot. Tatum starred alongside Alex Pettyfer, Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, and Matthew McConaughey. Bomer and Manganiello would also return alongside Tatum for the 2015 sequel Magic Mike XXL, this time directed by Gregory Jacobs, who was the first assistant director on the first film. The sequel was yet another hit both critically and financially.
Back when Magic Mike was still just an idea among many ideas, Soderbergh recalls pointing it out as the project that Tatum should focus on. He explained that when Tatum pitched the idea on the set of Haywire it immediately caught his attention. Then, by the time the story was finalized, Soderbergh was eager to jump on board to make the project a reality. He explained:
"I certainly knew that the idea of it Channing's idea of that movie was ridiculously commercial. I mean, he had pitched it to me -- he was describing it to me on a set of Haywire when I asked him what kind of other projects do you have in development? And he went down the list and then he kind of threw this away, he was like, 'Oh, yeah, and then I got this thing about when I was 19 and stripping in Tampa.' And I went, 'Okay, that's gold. That's Saturday Night Fever. What are you doing with that? And he said, 'We're developing it. We have a director.' And I said, 'Don't wait on that, like that's a great idea. Keep that thing on the front burner. Literally, a year goes by when he calls me, he says, 'Do you still like that idea?' I said, 'Yeah. And you're gonna meet me at Carney's on Sunset on Saturday, and we're gonna make a deal to make this movie this fall.' And so that's what happened. I knew that was a monster idea."
With a third film on the way, announced back in November, titled Magic Mike's Last Dance, Soderbergh gave us a little idea of what to expect in the finale. He explained that while he knew the concept of Magic Mike would be a hit, he did not know that Tatum was interested in expanding the universe of the movie into a broader scope, one that dealt with relationships, masculinity, and respect, which was expanded on in the second film. For Last Dance, he said:
"The third [movie] is the sort of apex of everything that we've been talking about in that area. Not just taking the dancing to another level, but really getting into the relationship aspect that's that's been an undercurrent in all of the films. Like Mike has a full-on relationship that's at the center of this movie, while all this stuff is going on, and we haven't done that before."
Though Last Dance could very well be Mike Lane's last hurrah, Soderbergh's return to the franchise is an exciting development. After the heights of XXL, it feels like we've already reached the peak, but it seems there is still more to reveal about Mike's story. Magic Mike's Last Dance is currently slated for release exclusively on HBO Max.