To the delight of thirsty fans all over the world, Channing Tatum recently announced that a third movie in the Magic Mike stripper saga, based on his own experiences as an exotic dancer in Tampa, Florida, is finally happening. Very little is known about the new film, apart from that it is entitled Magic Mike's Last Dance and Steven Soderbergh is returning to direct, but Tatum has just dropped some new details.
In a recent appearance via Zoom on The Graham Norton Show, the actor and dancer revealed that he is currently in rehearsals for the third (and presumably final) instalment in the franchise, which will be set in London, and explained why he decided to return to the character of Mike Lane.
"I don't really know what to say other than, I wasn't really planning on doing a third one, and then we went and made these live shows," he said. "We had some of the most premiere, sickest dancers you could possibly find in the world performing, and then what we learned along the way around men and women in this sort of space... it's really really fun stuff."
Tatum went on to explain his ambitions for this movie, promising that Magic Mike's Last Dance will be even bigger and better than XXL, and that it will build on the sequel's work when it comes to including female characters and perspectives.
"And so we decided to make a third movie, and I was like, look, two goals, and I'd say the first goal was I want to make the Super Bowl of stripper movies," he said. "I wanted to just leave it all out there. I want to have ballet stripping, I want to do it all so there never has to be another stripper movie ever again. And second, I wanted a really strong, equal female role."
Philip Ellis is News Editor at Men's Health, covering fitness, pop culture, sex and relationships, and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV, and he is the author of Love & Other Scams.
