The original Magic Mike was a movie that surprised a lot of people. It was a strange animal to begin with, being a movie about male exotic dancers directed by Steven Soderbergh. It was unclear what audiences should expect but they clearly liked what they got. It was such a big hit that it earned a sequel, and while the second movie was still well received, it’s hard to argue it wasn’t missing something when Matthew McConaughey did not return. So what about part three?
Magic Mike’s Last Dance, the third film in the series, has been given the greenlight as an original HBO Max production, so fans will get to see the characters they love one more time, though for a long time a third film was not expected. But could we see the return of Dallas, the character played by Matthew McConaughey who went MIA for Magic Mike XXL? Channing Tatum is being a bit cagey, not giving ET a clear answer when he says…
I didn’t know if Matthew would want to do it, he loves what he did in the first movie so much. He was like, ‘I don’t want to touch it.’
What’s interesting about this response is that, while it implies Matthew McConaughey probably won’t be back, it doesn’t shut the door on that possibility entirely. This is most interesting because part of the announcement that Magic Mike’s Last Dance was even happening included star Channing Tatum posting the cover page of the script to his Instagram.
This implies there is a finished script, and the character of Dallas is either in it or he isn’t. Certainly that script can be changed to accommodate Matthew McConaughey if he decides to return or not, but there is also, obviously, an expectation of whether he will appear right now.
And the roundabout way of answering may be an indication that we could see the popular character return. If the answer was a simple no, we might expect Channing Tatum to say so. Considering that McConaughey didn’t appear in the last movie, it wouldn’t be that big a shock for him to not appear in the next one.
But to be sure, Channing Tatum would love to see Dallas return in the new movie. He knows the character and the performance were a big part of what made the first Magic Mike so memorable. He continues…
I mean, I’m not saying anything about mine or anyone else’s performances. He was the star, he was the movie, it was special. I can’t tell you how many times I had to watch the movie because of different edits Steven [Soderbergh] would do, and I would just fast forward to when he blew the fire, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, he’s a swan song.’
So will we see Matthew McConaughey in Magic Mike’s Last Dance? The answer is a definitive…maybe? To be fair, McConaughey may not even be the only star from earlier films who does not return. At some point we’ll know for sure. If he doesn’t appear, it won’t be the end of the world. The last movie was still good without him, but if he does, he’ll certainly make a lot of fans happy and maybe he’ll actually be able to top his performance.