Last month, Channing Tatum treated his near 17 million Instagram followers to a surprise dance performance, taking to Instagram stories to share videos of himself practising a sultry shirtless routine at home, noting that it’s “been a minute” since he practised his skills and that he’s giving “Sloppy floor work but I’m tired ahah.”
Now, it’s clear Tatum wasn’t just dancing for the fun of it: he was getting himself back into shape ahead of filming another movie. Not just any movie, either. A new Magic Mike movie.
On Monday, November 29, the film’s leading man (and his abs) announced the third film in the stripper trilogy, Magic Mike’s Last Dance, is in the works. “Well world, looks like Mike Lane’s tapping back in,” he wrote on Twitter and Instagram, sharing a photo of the front page of the script.
As seen on the post, the upcoming instalment will be directed by Steven Soderbergh, who was at the helm of the original 2012 Magic Mike but did not return for Magic Mike XXL in 2015. The script has already been written by trilogy writer Reid Carolin.
As for whether Tatum’s Magic Mike co-stars Adam Rodriguez (Tito), Joe Manganiello (Big Dick Richie), Matt Bomer (Ken), and Kevin Nash (Tarzan), are back for a third-round remains to be seen. However, as The Cut notes, both Rodriguez and Bomer commented excited emojis on Tatum’s Instagram reveal, which likely means they’ll be back on screen (and at the very least, that they’re excited).
It’s also unclear whether the likes of Donald Glover and Jada Pinkett Smith, who appeared in Magic Mike XXL, will be signing up to add their star quality to the line-up. But if not, there are some other celebs ready and waiting in the wings: Joseph Gordon-Levitt of course famously re-created a Magic Mike dance number during an episode of Saturday Night Live in 2012. And, most recently, Tatum’s rumored girlfriend, Zoë Kravitz, put her famous father, Lenny, forward.
On one of her dad’s Instagram posts, Kravitz tagged Tatum and wrote, “You auditioning for MM3?” Tatum also confirmed on a different post of the musicians that he has the body for the job. “Good god man!” he wrote on a shirtless photo of Kravitz’s. “What are you eating or what’s in the water or the genes. It’s not natural. Do you just do abs like all day?”
I tell you what, we would love to see it. Jason Momoa wouldn’t go amiss either, Zö.
There’s not much more info about the project available yet, other than that Magic Mike’s Last Dance is set to premiere exclusively on HBO Max with a release date yet to be announced. In the meantime, we’ve done some research into whether all eight of Tatum’s abs will be joining the cast and can confirm, yes, yes they are.
