We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but it’s recently come to our attention that the upcoming Magic Mike’s Last Dance—you know, the latest in the trilogy about male strippers—will not feature any nudity. None!
“Not even a thong,” says director Steven Soderbergh. *GASP*
We know, we know; we’re furious, too! Please don’t shoot the messenger.
This shocking revelation came out of a Rolling Stone interview, in which the prolific filmmaker—who is known for sexy movies like Out Of Sight and Sex, Lies, And Videotape—touches on the state of sex in cinema.
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“To me, it’s about sexy. It’s not about the sex, per se, and whether the movie is explicit,” Soderbergh shares. “There’s no nudity in Out of Sight. There’s no nudity in Magic Mike’s Last Dance. There’s not even a thong. And yet, it was our desire to make a sexy movie.”
Related:
This weekend, liven up life with some all-male nudity
A little something to keep you warm during a cold spell.
While we don’t doubt you can make a sexy movie without sex, how are you about to make a male stripper movie without men taking their clothes off?
“What’s sexy is intimacy and genuine emotion,” the director adds. “Something that feels alive, and electric, and has the potential for vulnerability. That can be sexy.”
Okay, fair enough. And we really have to give Soderbergh some credit; his movies—and especially the Magic Mike franchise—always surprise us.
For example, the original 2012 movie sold itself as a rollicking good time, loosely inspired by Channing Tatum‘s own past as an exotic dancer. And while it was that, it was also a pretty serious cautionary tale about greed and an indictment of capitalism. Sure!
The 2015 sequel, Magic Mike XXL, on the other hand, was a proper buddy road trip movie all about indulging in pleasure and having a good time. (For the record, that film was directed by Gregory Jacobs, although Soderbergh remained very involved in the filmmaking.)
Related:
And now to brighten your day, here’s Matt Bomer stripping
Who could ask for anything more?
That’s all to say, we don’t quite know what to expect from Last Dance, even though the logline tells us it concerns itself with Channing’s Mike following a wealthy socialite (Salma Hayek, who is always welcome on our screens) to London after she “lures him with an offer he can’t refuse.” Wait… that does sound sexy.
In the same interview, Soderbergh talks about Last Dance putting the emphasis on female desire, which apparently comes through in the movie’s opening dance number: A steamy tête-à-tête between Tatum and Hayek. The scene has been tantalizingly teased in an early preview clip online:
Alright, we’re intrigued… now when does Channing start shaking it to the tune of “Pony” again?
Anyway, Soderbergh’s assertion that there will be “no nudity” in Magic Mike’s Last Dance feels like a bit of anti-promo. Dude, the movie hits theaters this week—don’t you want people to go see it?
As his now infamous “not even a thong” comment makes headlines across the internet, the male stripper-appreciating community of Twitter is up in arms, shaking their fists to the skies shouting, “What is even the point of this movie then???”
Here are just a few of our favorite reactions to the sad, sad news:
Jack Meoff
And just like that they killed their box office.
Fahd
The bad guys win if content creators voluntarily reinstate the morality standards of the 1950s.
Unbelievable. Where is the next Alex Pettyfer going to be discovered?
jackscott
Guess I can save some money and skip that movie!
bachy
Was there nudity in the first two Magic Mike films? There was stripping, of course, but I don’t remember any actual nudity…
Donston
There was a decent amount of bare butt.
You could tell from the trailer that this was gonna be more of a melodramatic “dance movie” than anything realistic or raunchy.
basils_Herald
Everything that you need to know about any of the Magic Mike movies can be found on imgur
smittoons
Not necessarily related, but the movie currently is sitting as the worst reviewed of the trilogy. By a big margin, too.
Doug
These films were was just a Hollywood tease for suburban housewives. Except for some random rear shots, there was nary a dick in sight. There’s more male full-frontal nudity on one Hulu or HBO Max show than this whole series put together.
DarkZephyr
Female desire is great and all, for females and straight males. The previous films were pretty heteronormative overall, so the only reason gay men would want to see the films were for male skin. That’s why I watched them. If we aren’t getting that with this final film, then there is zero motivation for me to watch it, that’s for sure.
Kangol2
Snooze!
Bromancer7
He had the chance to do something rarely ever done before (an honest representation of male nudity in a stripper film), and it would have been a huge hit that people kept on talking about for weeks, if not months.
This movie is gonna be a huge flop and no one is even gonna remember it came and went. I mean, it’s not gonna make it solely on Tatum’s acting or Salma’s tits.