Tatum's stripper/furniture designer character gets felt up by Hayek's character in the official picture teasing what's to expect from the upcoming Steven Soderbergh-directed pic.
- Oct 22, 2022
AceShowbiz - Channing Tatum is stripping off again as he's back as Magic Mike in the first look at "Magic Mike's Last Dance". Teasing what to expect from the upcoming drama film, the actor has taken to Instagram to unveil the first official picture from the long-awaited threequel.
In the image, Tatum's titular character, who is a stripper/furniture designer, lifts off his shirt so that Salma Hayek's new character can touch his ab muscles as she closes her eyes. "All good things begin in Miami," he captioned it.
Hayek posted a similar image on her own social media page. "A tease of what's to come in theaters this Valentine's Day weekend," she wrote in the caption, adding, "You're not going to want to miss #MagicMikesLastDance."
"Magic Mike's Last Dance" is the follow-up to 2015's "Magic Mike XXL", which was initially thought to be the last movie of the franchise. However, Steven Soderbergh, who directed the first movie, said in a statement that the "Magic Mike Live Las Vegas" shows Tatum started made him want to do another one.
"As soon as I saw what Channing, [writer] Reid [Carolin], and the 'Magic Mike' choreographic team did with the live show, I said we have to make another movie," Soderbergh said. "Mike Lane's dream of connecting people through dance must be realized!"
Plot details of the third film are still kept under wraps, but Tatum has teased his goals for the movie. "I want it to be the Super Bowl of stripping," he told PEOPLE in February. "I want dancing like we've never been able to do in the other two movies, because we had to be honest to what the reality of that world is, which isn't great dancing."
The 42-year-old hunk also stressed the importance of a well-written female lead. "I want to have an equal, if not even more centralized female character for Mike to really play off of and almost to," he explained. "I don't want to say, [to have her] take the baton, but really let the movie be about a female's experience and not Mike's experience, because it has been so much about Mike and the guys' experiences. These movies are very, very female-forward. At least that is our intention."
Thandiwe Newton (Thandie Newton) was initially cast as the female lead, before she dropped out in April and was replaced by Hayek. The movie is due out February 10, 2023 in U.S. theaters.
