I not only watched Magic Mike, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the story more than I expected and of course I enjoyed the dancing. I actually wished there was less story and MOAR DANCING. I wanted to see more of Matt Bomer’s character and even Joe Manganiello’s character instead of the stupid Alex Pettyfer storyline. And of course, I totally loved Matthew McConaughey. A lot of people were like “OMG, Matthew did something completely new and groundbreaking in True Detective/Dallas Buyers Club,” but to my eyes, Matthew’s transformation into a “real actor” came with Magic Mike. He was really wonderful and fearless and delightfully weird in that movie. But now that Matthew has won dozens of awards for True Detective and DBC, he’s too big to do Magic Mike XXL.

Let’s get right down to it, while Channing Tatum has said the entire cast would be back, Dallas, aka Matthew McConaughey, won’t return for the “Magic Mike” sequel. We spoke to “Magic Mike XXL” director Greg Jacobs this week about his new Amazon pilot, “Red Oaks,” and the filmmaker, known for producing many of Steven Soderbergh’s films, including his current series “The Knick,” confirmed to us that McConaughey will not be back.

And while cameras have rolled on the “Magic Mike” sequel—you’ll recall Soderbergh posting slates on Twitter over Labor Day weekend—Jacobs told us that was just second unit footage and the real shoot doesn’t begin until the end of the month. Much of the cast—Tatum, Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello—will reprise their roles, but it’s unknown beyond that who else is returning, and Jacobs said he couldn’t say much more.

But the filmmaker—who will have Soderbergh acting as his director of cinematography, camera operator and editor—said ‘XXL’ will be “very different.” “What am I allowed to say?” he said with a pause. “It’s road trip movie and put it this way, it’s different enough that once you see it you’ll understand why we made a sequel. No one will be accusing us of making the same movie twice.”

Jacobs says new cast members will join the fold, too, but because those deals aren’t closed he wasn’t at liberty to say who.

[From Indie Wire]

I think this is a mistake for Matthew, IF he’s the one who decided not to do the sequel. It might not have been his call, but I can’t imagine Channing Tatum and Steven Soderbergh would have rejected a role for Matthew in the sequel. I think it was Matthew’s call and now that he’s every director’s top choice for every role, he doesn’t want to go back to stealing scenes from Charming Potato in a stripper movie. Mistake!

Also, I saw this Lincoln commercial a few nights ago and I just had to roll my eyes. Ever since True Detective, Matthew thinks people want to see him staring off into space and muttering stuff about space and time and the cosmos, man.

Photos courtesy of WENN.