Thandiwe Newton is leaving Magic Mike’s Last Dance, with Salma Hayek taking over her role in the Warner Bros. film. Production had recently begun in London.
“Thandiwe Newton has made the difficult decision to step away from the production of Warner Bros. Pictures’ Magic Mike’s Last Dance to deal with family matters,” a Warners spokesperson said in a statement.
Magic Mike’s Last Dance will be premiering exclusively on HBO Max and will see Channing Tatum return as male stripper Mike Lane, a character that was loosely based on Tatum’s own experiences as a stripper in Florida. Plot details are not yet known for Last Dance, but the movie is expected to wrap up the Magic Mike story.
The first Magic Mike film grossed $167 million at the box office, and was followed by the 2015 sequel Magic Mike XXL. Both films’ combined global gross nearly reached $300 million. The franchise also spawned a lucrative stage show, Magic Mike Live, which has appeared in Las Vegas, London, Berlin and Australia.
Steven Soderbergh will return to the director’s chair, having stepped away for the 2015 sequel. Reid Carolin, who was behind the screenplays for the first two Magic Mike films, is returning to write.
Newton is currently on screens with Chris Pine in All the Old Knives, and last year appeared in Reminiscence for Warner Bros. and her Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy. Last year, Hayek appeared in the Marvel Studios film Eternals and Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci, and has a voice role in the upcoming animated feature Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. She is repped by CAA, Management 360 and Laird & Sobel.
Source: Hollywood
