Along with creator and producer Judy Craymer, Seyfried and Streep revealed the latest details around the possibility of a third film in an oral history piece in Vogue to mark the 15th anniversary of the original film.
Seyfried, 37, confirmed that the third film is the goal, but the likely costs of the film and keeping its cast together would be a challenge.
“I dare you to show me one person who doesn’t want a third Mamma Mia!”, she said enthusiastically, a statement echoed in the piece by other key cast members.
“Nobody is saying no, but nobody is saying yes either,” Seyfried went on.
“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.
Things take their time
Craymer admitted if she had her 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.”
Streep, 74, agreed saying: “We may have to call it Grand-Mamma Mia! by the time we make it!”
Mamma Mia! tells the story of a young woman named Sophie (Seyfried) who invites three of her free-spirited mother Donna’s (Streep) former flings to her Greek island wedding, hoping to discover which one of them is her father. The film also features Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard and centers around the songs of ABBA.
The second film, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is both a prequel and sequel and looks back on Donna’s life and experiences as well as seeing Sophie aiming to reopen her recently deceased mother’s taverna on the island.
Though her character Donna was killed off in the movie, Streep said she would be willing to return.
“If there’s an idea that excites me, I’m totally there,” she told Vogue. “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.”
Brosnan also agreed he was just waiting on the call.
“Judy knows where to find me if they wanna have a third go around,” he said.
“I think everybody would feel the same way if she said, “I have a story, I have the script.” We’d all do it in a heartbeat.”
Universal executive Donna Langley said in the same article that “Universal would love to make a third movie, and I’ll leave it at that.”
