Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike was a surprise hit when it was released last year. It opened to pretty positive reviews and earned a respectable $170 million worldwide. Maybe “surprise hit” isn’t exactly the right word, since we all knew that a film featuring Channing Tatum as a stripper wouldn’t go unnoticed. But still, the movie did a lot better than most people expected it to and because of that, we’ll be seeing a Magic Mike 2.
As you may or may not know, Soderbergh has already announced his intention to retire, so it’s unlikely that he’ll direct. That being said, he has stated that he still wants to help out with the film in some way.
“I want to help. I have some proprietary feelings about it, obviously. I want to make sure it gets done and done well, so we meet every couple of weeks to talk about where it’s going. But it’s gonna be good. It’s a good idea. It’s not a retread. And there will be more time spent with the characters — all of them,” said the director.
Tatum has spoken out about the sequel in the past, saying that it will be both a “road movie” and “broad comedy.” He has also expressed a desire to make the film his directorial debut. So he may very well be taking over for Soderbergh in the sequel, though that’s unconfirmed at this point.
What we do know though is that the film is in production right now and according to Soderbergh, it is “getting pretty far along.” The director went on to explain:
“There were some stories and events that Channing lived through that we just couldn’t fit in the first one. One of them is a really hilarious and very cinematic idea that we reluctantly didn’t put in the first film, because it was such a big idea you could build a whole film out of it – but we didn’t want to build that film out of it. It’s perfect for this, though.”
So, it sounds like everything is moving along quite well and hopefully, we’ll be seeing Magic Mike 2 in no time. It’s great to hear that Soderbergh will still be overseeing the project in some capacity and the prospect of Tatum himself directing is definitely exciting.
As we wait to hear more details on this one, tell us, would you like to see Tatum direct? And where do you want to see them go with the sequel?
