by Jorge Molina
On Saturday night, a descendant of Aphrodite herself decided to manifest amongst us mortals in the form of a Twitter user who leaked the first trailer for Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the upcoming sequel to the hit musical (and yes, my most anticipated movie of 2018).
The trailer was only up for around twelve hours (a blissful twelve hours!) before it was taken down. Expect a formal release of it soon, but until then, let’s put into use incognito screenshots and see what the trailer revealed about the movie. [Potential spoilers for the plot of Mamma Mia! 2 after the jump!]
WHAT WE LEARNED...
Sophie is pregnant. The trailer kicks off with Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) welcoming her aunts Tanya and Rosie (Christine Baranski and Julie Walters) back into the Greek island of Kalokairi, and immediately reveals that she is pregnant. Nice way to keep the motherhood theme going! However…
Donna, Meryl Streep’s character, is most likely dead. Sophie immediately says she is scared of doing it all alone, and her aunts proceed to tell her that her mother was the bravest woman they ever met and share the story of how she did it.
This is not the only sign that Donna is potentially dead. There is barely any new Meryl footage in the trailer, and the little she is in look like fantasy numbers. Also, it was reported that Meryl only filmed for a little over a week, so her role can’t be in the leading capacity that it was in the first one. If this rumor is true, it is certainly a bold and unexpected direction to take the story.
The movie uses flashbacks as a narrative device. Sophie’s aunts retelling of Donna’s story launches us into the flashback portion of the movie, where we see younger versions of the Dynamos and Sophie’s three dads.
And the younger cast is strikingly on-point. I have some thoughts on Lily James’ American accent, but she seems to embody Meryl’s free-spirit energy from the first one and infuse her with youth. She is also remarkably similar to Amanda Seyfried.
As for the rest, kudos to Jessica Keenan Wynn for carrying the iconic Tanya bob wig so well, and for all three young dads for being, if nothing else, big pieces of eye candy.
They’re sticking to old classics. Even though Benny Anderson has confirmed that ABBA songs not used in the original will be used in the sequel (in particular “Angel Eyes”, “I Wonder” and “When I Kissed the Teacher”) and Cher is most likely performing the iconic “Fernando” per her Twitter feed, the trailer sticks to old favorites, such as “Dancing Queen” and a surprisingly moving slowed-down version of “Mamma Mia!”.
CHER IS HERE, B*TCH, (and she’s playing Meryl’s mother?) The trailer saves the best reveal for last, as a helicopter flies into the island and in a single shot of a pantsuited leg and a cane, we know She’s here.
“Grandma, you’re not invited” says Amanda Seyfriend, confirming my theory that she will be playing Donna’s controversial mother, but totally screwing up my timeline. In whatever case, her entrance is instantly iconic.
There’s no trailer to point you towards, but while we wait for its arrival, what do you think about these revelations? Do you think killing Meryl is a smart idea? What songs would you like to see? Is your heart racing from that Cher sighting? Let us know in the comments.