Fans have long waited for Magic Mike’s Last Dance, which is set to hit screens eight years after its predecessors. Loosely based on Channing Tatum’s personal experiences, the franchise is well-loved for its comedy, romance, melodrama, and of course dance and music. The original movie shot its leading man to fame, and now he’s expected to bow out of the franchise following latest edition. In a new interview with Total Film franchise director Steven Soderbergh revealed the inspiration behind the new feature.
“A third Magic Mike movie was kind of unexpected,” the director said. He further explained that the team was a couple of years into working on a more traditional Broadway version of the show while Tatum and screenwriter Reid Carolin and the choreographic team were also developing the live show. He added, “I’d seen some very early schematic workshops of the live show, and thought it was intriguing. But I really wasn’t prepared, 18 months later, for what I saw in London, which was the finished version. And I was so captivated by it that I got on the phone, and said, 'I think we should abandon the Broadway idea, and I would like to make a movie that is a fictionalized version of how Mike comes up with the idea for the live show.'”
The new movie follows a broke Mike, who is bartending in Florida after a business deal goes south. It is when he meets Salma Hayek’s character who offers him an opportunity to put on a show in London. “So, it’s another in a series of what I would call ‘process films’, where, like an Ocean’s movie, it’s an exploded view of somebody trying to solve a problem.” The director reveals that it’s a “really fun mash-up of things that I like – one of them being: showing people solving problems, the other being: people dancing!” Speaking about dancing, Soderbergh previously revealed that the movie will close with a 30-minute-long dance sequence.
Alongside Tatum as Mike, the movie's cast includes Hayek, Ayub Khan Din, Jemelia George, Juliette Motamed, Vicki Pepperdine, Gavin Spokes, Caitlin Gerard, Christopher Bencomo, and Nas Ganev. It was previously announced that developments were ongoing for additional films in the franchise which centered around other characters unrelated to Mike. By the looks of the promotional material, the feature looks equal part seductive and sophisticated.
Magic Mike's Last Dance will debut in theaters on February 10, 2023. You can check out the trailer below: