Christine Baranski is very interested in returning for a potential Mamma Mia 3, though she admits it's hard getting the entire cast back together. When the ABBA jukebox musical Mamma Mia was turned into a film in 2008, few could've predicted it would later spawn a sequel. The first movie was a box office smash, grossing over $602 million worldwide. Ten years later, the original cast returned for Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, and while it didn't make quite as much as its predecessor, it was still a solid performer. Though few people believed it was a necessary sequel, audiences and critics were largely charmed by the lighthearted musical.
It should come as no surprise then that a Mamma Mia 3 isn't off the table. In June 2020, producer Judy Craymer said that she believed there would one day be another film, since Mamma Mia is now meant to be a trilogy. She even alluded to development starting up that year, but it was impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Now, in 2022, there haven't been many developments, but various Mamma Mia stars have shown an interest in returning to the land of sequins and ABBA music.
The latest is Christine Baranski, who plays Tanya in the franchise. She recently spoke to EW while promoting her new HBO series The Gilded Age and answered the question of whether she would ever return for a Mamma Mia 3. Baranski is definitely interested, and she believes everyone else would be too. She said:
"If we could go back and have the same amount of good fun and be on a Greek island together filming and dining together at night at some wonderful trattoria or taverna, I don't think anybody would give you an argument."
The biggest issue, Baranski went on to say, is scheduling. After all, the Mamma Mia franchise counts those like Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgård among its biggest stars. However, Baranski believes that, if everyone was willing, the Mamma Mia cast could do a reunion similar to the recent specials for Friends and Harry Potter. "I always think wouldn't it be fun just to get back together on that Greek island and maybe film all of us having dinner and telling the stories and singing all Abba songs?" she said. "And then just have it filmed as a great night out." It might be safe to say fans would happily watch something like that, should it ever come to pass.
For now, Mamma Mia 3 is in a state of limbo, but that isn't a strange occurrence in the time of COVID. If anything, it's just nice to hear the stars are still thinking about it. If those like Baranski and Skarsgård, who expressed interest in Mamma Mia 3 last fall, keep talking about, then it stands a better chance of being made someday. There might not be a lot more story to tell, but there are more ABBA songs to sing, so it could easily happen. The dancing queens of the world should stay tuned for more updates.
Source: EW