Magic Mike: Channing Tatum talks sequel

Here at EW, we consider it our duty to bring you all the Magic Mike-related stripping news. It’s because we care.

Since the film opened June 29th, it has earned over $75 million (more impressive: on just a $7 million budget). A Broadway-bound musical is in the works for next summer, so it should be no surprise that Channing Tatum, when asked about a possible Magic Mike 2, told Glamour U.K., ��Yes, yes and yes! We’re working on the concept now. We want to flip the script and make it bigger.”

Even bigger? Ignoring the obvious joke (I’m looking at you, Joe Manganiello!) this thrilling news got me thinking about possible Magic Mike 2 plot points. I guess Spoiler Alert! to anyone who has yet to see the movie, but I’m going to be honest: Mike’s plot is about as thin as the waistband of one of their thongs.

The way I see it, a sequel can go one of two ways: More of the same, or a new adventure for Tatum. The film ended with Mike (Tatum) deciding not to go with the rest of the crew to Miami and instead stay in Tampa with Brooke and open up a furniture business. That’s all very lovely, but I don’t want to watch a movie about that. I would, however, definitely watch a film about the new McConaughey-run club in Miami. Perhaps Tatum can continue the semi-autobiographical journey of Magic Mike, end things with Brooke (sorry, Cody Horn), be discovered in Hollywood when he goes there for a furniture convention, and then go back to the Miami club as sort of a one-night-only charity promotion. We’ve got to keep him dancing somehow.

As for the rest, I’d love to see beefed-up—no pun intended—roles for Matt Bomer and Joe Manganiello. Despite being heavily promoted, the duo were more like really beautiful, muscular scenery. They — and the dances we were just teased with, like Bomer’s Ken doll routine — should definitely see more screen time. As long as we’re dreaming, why not have those two partner for some buddy comedy routine, and become BFFs offstage?

In addition to a bigger role for some current club members, I think the gang needs to meet another magic guy in Miami who can really steal the stripping show, and give the movie a lighter edge. I realize this has essentially no chance of happening, but like my colleague Mandi Bierly wrote, at the screening I went to, people went nuts when Ryan Gosling showed up in a trailer for his film Gangster Squad. Maybe he could be a stripper with a heart of gold — a struggling artist who also dances. We could lose the drug plotline of the first film, and he could show them around other areas of Miami — with copious beach scenes, of course.

Final sequel request: No scenes at a bank. No one needed to see that.

Five reasons why straight dudes will like ‘Magic Mike’

Joe Manganiello talks possible ‘Magic Mike’ musical: Would you pay to see a live version?