In the sequel to Magic Mike, Salma Hayek will take the place of Thandie Newton
Salma Hayek, who has been nominated for an Academy Award, has joined Channing Tatum’s new movie Magic Mike’s Last Dance, replacing Thandie Newton, who had been set to play the lead.
For family reasons, Thandie Newton has decided to withdraw from Warner Bros. Pictures’ Super Mike’s Last Dance, “a studio spokesperson said.”
Remember that the third installment of the dramatic comedy was shot exclusively for HBO Max? Reed Carolyn, who wrote the first two films, and Steven Soderbergh, who directed the first film in 2012, are both working on a sequel.
The trilogy is expected to be completed with the third installment, which has just begun production in the United Kingdom. Gregory Jacobs, Caroline, Nick Wexler, and Peter Kiernan, the director of Magic Mike XXL, are producing.
Tatum and Carolyn hinted in a February interview that the female lead would be crucial to the plot of the sequel. “It’s actually a story about a woman who finds herself trapped in a terrible strip show and wonders, ‘What am I doing here?'” Carolyn clarified “And then Magic Mike descends from the sky.”
“What do I really want?” she asks as she descends the rabbit hole. “Powerful, almost like Mike,” Tatum said of the character. “We’ve never shown a traditional love story, and this one will be no exception.”
