Summary

• Mamma Mia 3 can bring back Meryl Streep's character Donna through flashbacks, a technique used successfully in the second movie.
• The gaps between the first two movies can be filled in with Donna flashbacks, exploring events and unanswered questions.
• Flashbacks could reveal more about Donna's life before her death, providing a deeper storyline for her, Sophie, and other characters.

Mamma Mia 3’s biggest challenge is all about Meryl Streep’s character, Donna Sheridan, but this problem was already solved in the second movie, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. It’s not uncommon for successful musicals to make the jump from the stage to the big screen, and among the most beloved ones is Mamma Mia!. In 2008, the jukebox musical Mamma Mia!, written by Catherine Johnson and based on songs by legendary Swedish group ABBA, was adapted into a film, with Phyllida Lloyd as director and Johnson in charge of the script.

Mamma Mia! told the story of Sophie Sheridan (Amanda Seyfried), a young bride-to-be who invited three men to her wedding, as any of them could be her biological father according to what she found in her mother Donna’s diary. What followed was fun, musical chaos as Donna dealt with the surprise arrival of her three former flames and Sophie tried to figure out who could be her father. Despite mixed reviews from critics, Mamma Mia! was a commercial success, making way for a sequel and with a third movie in development, which is facing a huge Meryl Streep problem that, luckily, was solved in the second movie.

Mamma Mia 3 Can Use Flashbacks To Bring Meryl Streep’s Donna Back

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again Used Flashbacks To Tell Donna’s Story

Mamma Mia 3 is facing the challenge of bringing Meryl Streep back despite Donna’s death, but Here We Go Again gave the perfect solution: flashbacks.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again serves as both a prequel and a sequel to Mamma Mia!. Mamma Mia 2 goes back and forth between 1979 and the present (set five years after the first movie), as it explores Donna’s younger years and how she met Sam, Harry, and Bill, but in the present day, Donna is gone. Donna ed away before the events of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, and so the movie focuses on Sophie’s efforts to reopen the hotel to honor her mother, while she also deals with problems with her husband, Sky (Dominic Cooper).

Because of this, Meryl Streep didn’t appear in Mamma Mia 2 except for one, quick cameo at the end. During the christening of Sophie and Sky’s son, Donna appears as a ghost before she fully es on. Mamma Mia 3 is facing the challenge of bringing Meryl Streep back despite Donna’s death, but Here We Go Again gave the perfect solution: flashbacks. Instead of following a much younger Donna, Mamma Mia 3 can follow a grown-up Donna through flashbacks, allowing the movie to bring Streep back in a much bigger capacity than a cameo as a ghost.

Mamma Mia 3’s Donna Flashbacks Can Fill In The Gaps Between The First Movies

A Lot Of Things Happened Between Mamma Mia & Its Sequel

As mentioned above, five years ed between Mamma Mia! and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, but the latter didn’t do much to explain what happened during those years. The biggest mystery is how Donna died, and as she died a year before the events of Mamma Mia 2, there’s the question of what happened during the four years between the ending of Mamma Mia! and Donna’s death. Mamma Mia 3, then, through flashbacks, can fill in those gaps between the first two movies, while also giving the audience a chance to see Meryl Streep’s Donna again.

Another option is exploring events before the first movie, such as how Sophie and Sky met, though that wouldn’t leave much room for Donna unless she’s given a story that was never mentioned in the other movies. Mamma Mia 3 without Meryl Streep’s Donna wouldn’t feel complete, but her diaries surely have more stories to explore that can be greatly beneficial to her, Sophie, Sam, and other characters.