Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Magic Mike’s Last Dance.
In 2012, a movie called Magic Mike was released. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the film followed a group of male strippers, led by Channing Tatum’s Mike. The movie was made on a budget of $7 million and made over $150 million at the box office. A sequel, Magic Mike XXL, was released in 2015, and it nearly did just as well.
Now, in 2023, we have finally gotten the third entry in the franchise, with the release of Magic Mike’s Last Dance. Channing Tatum has come back for one last ride, alongside Salma Hayek Pinault. Even though the film is dubbed Magic Mike’s Last Dance, will it really be the last Magic Mike movie? Will we ever see Tatum in that role again? Let’s take a look at the end of the film and talk about the possibility of a fourth movie in the franchise.
Will we get a Magic Mike 4?
The story of Magic Mike’s Last Dance picks up after the Covid-19 pandemic when Mike Lane, unfortunately, had to shutter his business. Leaving his career as a stripper behind him, he dodges the calls of the Kings of Tampa, his former stripping troupe. Working as a bartender, he meets Maxandra Mendoza (Hayek Pinault), who offers him $6000 to take her mind off of her divorce by giving him a lap dance.
Fortunately for Mike, the lap dance changes her life and afterward the pair engage in some naked dancing, Max takes him back to her home in London, where she promises him $60,000 if he spends a month with her. But, she does not want him to be her live-in dancer, she wants him to direct and choreograph a stage play for her, one that gets everyone who watches it to feel like she felt when Mike was dancing for her.
Ultimately, Mike is successful in his task, rounding up a dozen dancers and putting on an excellent show. But, he also performs in it, appearing in one of the last dances, a dance between him and a ballerina (Kylie Shea). They dance in the rain, and it is supposed to draw parallels between the relationship Mike and Max have had since they met.
The movie ends with Max revealing to Mike that because they went ahead with the performance, her mother-in-law will be setting up her finances so that she is completely written out of the budget, cutting her off. Mike does not care that she is broke, they kiss and the movie ends with everybody dancing, as it should.
So, was it Magic Mike’s last dance? Maybe. He only dances a few times in this film, and while Tatum has definitely still got it, he might not want to keep making these movies into his twilight years, having to get in prime shape every decade. There is always the possibility that the Magic Mike title will carry on for a series of spinoff films. Director Steven Soderbergh has said that it would be the final film in the franchise, but that it could carry on in another form.
The interesting angle is that it could just be the final film for now. We barely got to see the Kings of Tampa in Magic Mike’s Last Dance, as they only appeared in a video call halfway through the film. It seems like a missed opportunity not to reunite them all one last time. Channing Tatum has previously stated that getting in shape for these films is unhealthy, but that he would like to do “the “Grumpy Old Men” version when we’re like 70. When we’re 70, I want to get the team back together, for sure.”
Bringing Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Kevin Nash, Adam Rodríguez, Gabriel Iglesias, and maybe even Matthew McConaughey back for a fourth installment when they are all older would be hilarious. The Wild Hogs of stripper movies as it were. It isn’t like they aren’t great with callbacks enough to pull off a sequel that far away, after all, Magic Mike’s Last Dance was packed with references to the first movie.
So, for now, this has probably been the last Magic Mike movie, even though it could get another installment in the future or some kind of spinoff. But remember, we’ve always got the solid trilogy to rewatch at any time. You can catch Channing Tatum’s abs in Magic Mike’s Last Dance which is in theaters now.