I swear I’d written on this before but apparently not. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 is happening. Are we excited about that? Reading my old posts, I was apparently looking forward to MBFGW2 and that didn’t work out so well for me, so I’m a bit more cautious this time. I loved the first film. Who didn’t? So I get why they made a second one. But after it was panned and underperformed at the box office, they thought it would be a good idea to make a third. Mm’kay. However, this time they are filming in Greece, which may provide the magic they need to get their mojo back. Writer and star Nia Vardalos posted a video to her social media announcing the project and telling fans that she will take over the directing this time.
In her latest update on the third installment, (Nia) Vardalos recently took to social media to announce that My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 has begun filming in Athens, Greece. In the video, Vardalos reveals she is the director of the film and offers a quick look at the set from the window of her hotel room. Captioned “Thank you Playtone, Gold Circle, HBO, and Focus,” the video is a very positive development for the upcoming film.
Of course, My Big Fat Greek Wedding fans can expect the entire supporting cast to return for the next installment. Sadly, (Michael) Constantine passed away last year and was unable to begin filming My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3. However, Vardalos previously revealed that the beloved actor gave the third film his blessing, and the project will pay tribute to Constantine as Gus Portokalos. As it stands, Vardalos appears adamant about remaining true to her roots, and the roots of the titular family, by setting My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 in Greece. Now that production had started on My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, Vardalos could share behind-the-scenes images soon.
At this time, major plot details for the third film remain under wraps. While it remains to be seen if My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 will focus on the wedding of Paris (Elena Kampouris), with Toula and Ian tasked with keeping the family in check while arranging the upcoming nuptials of their daughter, it can be expected that the third film will be an emotional and exciting new chapter. For now, fans of the first two films have a lot to look forward to with the upcoming My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3.
[From Screen Rant via SOMG]
Nia has only directed one film before, I Hate Valentine’s Day. It starred her and John Corbett. I love how much they love to work together. It also bodes well that John’s worked with her as a director. I guess Nia’s as good a choice as any to direct the movie. I worry she might be a little too close to the material, but she doesn’t strike me as a control freak. I’m hopeful that this film will mirror the first film of a family wedding with Toula and Ian’s daughter getting married. It would be funny if Paris was marrying a Greek and his (or her) family was having an issue with Paris because she wasn’t Greek enough, since Ian is a WASP. I’m also excited about the Greek setting. Everything is better when it’s set in Greece. And involves Andrea Martin. Those two things improve any project, regardless of subject.
Unfortunately, there will be some bittersweetness to this film. The first, which I’m sure will not be addressed, is that John’s Ian character was named after Nia’s now ex-husband, Ian Gomez. They split in 2017 and I haven’t seen a Nia project without him in it yet. The other, which will be addressed as the article said, is that Michael Constantine who played Toula’s dad, passed away last year. All of the supporting cast was important to the film, but Michael’s Gus was arguably the anchor of the supporting cast. Plus, Nia’s real life father upon whom Michael’s character was based, passed away a year before Michael and Nia was unable to say goodbye in person due to quarantine. This movie is already making me cry and it hasn’t even shot yet.
Here’s Nia announcment:
Photo credit: Avalon Red, Instagram and Getty Images
Loved MBFGW I. Number two was not so good. The series also came to a stop. And Michael Constantine was a big part of the movie. I’ll watch it, but with a track record like that, I think it’s time to let it go and focus creative energy elsewhere.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding is hands down my favourite romantic comedy. And it has the best proposal I have ever seen depicted in a movie. So warm and private.
The second one was cute but nowhere near the first one.
I hope that, if the 3rd one will be set in Greece, they wont make Greece feel backwards like it’s the 19th century the way Hollywood movies like to portray anything in Europe that isn’t Western Europe or Scandinavia.
Toula’s family reminded me so much of my own even though we aren’t Greek. There was such a universality to it. I didn’t hate the second one as much as some people. It’s simply hard to recapture that magic. I will watch this one for sure.
My other favorite movie of hers is Connie and Carla. If you like musicals and drag queens, check it out. It’s cute and funny with a great cast.
I loved the first one. But it’s about 2 people falling in love as well as a woman discovering herself, and that’s absolute magic. The second one was rushed in the wedding stuff, (all those cut scenes of pointing to things), and completely undid the character development by having Toula become her father right down to the absurd “why are you leaving me?” Malarkey. It was disappointing for a character who had become so empowered to be so limited in scope that even at the end when she has the option to reconnect with Ian the first thing she says is “maybe we can adopt a baby”. (Might be super realistic but still)
So if number 3 is entirely the dramatics of a wedding planning between two different Greek families it might be really good and funny, but I don’t see them getting anywhere near the magic of the first 1.
I love her – a movie of Toula discovering new hobbies would be hilarious and I’d watch it, but number 2 just took all the air out of the balloon for me.
(It was on prime and I watched them b2b. Thank you for coming to my MBFGW ted talk)
I’m cautiously optimistic! Also, I highly recommend Moonstruck to fans of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Very similar sense of family and romantic comedy.
Woah – that’s a bit much! I get what you mean about the similar sense of family and MBFGW is OK, charming even… but Moonstruck is a stone cold CLASSIC! Olympic Dukakis being hilarious! Cher being a goddess! Nicholas Cage being… Nicholas Cage!
While we’re waiting, let’s all watch My Life in Ruins
Yessssss!!! I love it!! ❤️
That movie was so adorable. No idea why it didn’t get more buzz. I loved it. Sure she plays the same characters but if you’re good at something 🤷🏻♀️
As a Greek I found these movies so incredibly offensive. I don’t know if Americans of Greek descent are like that : tacky, backwards, uneducated, speaking in such heavy unrealistic accents though they live there, ridiculously hairy with no sense of style or decorum. Greeks in Greece are nothing like this. Man I hated both these movies.
I hear you! When cultures are portrayed as a vehicle to amplify stereotypes it is offensive. The occasional good natured reference to a trope maybe, but ‘these people are like this’ is not a good look.
I am a Black Canadian woman, well over 50, and in my youth I was saddened and embarrassed by the only representations of Blacks available; pimps, gangsters, or shucking and jiving sycophants to Whites- the butt of every joke. And I NEVER saw Asian or First Nations people represented in their full humanity either. I’ve left out all of the other misrepresented groups, apologies…
I live near a large Greek community in California and I have never seen such reductive stereotypes as shown in the movie. I have a close friend who is a Greek Aussie (who moved here with her family in the late 90’s) who have introduced me to many others in their community and they are absolutely normal, welcoming, and lovely people who don’t behave in these overly cartoonish ‘Greek’ tropes.
It was a ‘cute’ movie on the first time I watched it when it was first released but I recently did a re-watch and it did NOT age well.
The characters were such toxic family/sexist gender role caricatures and it was annoying to watch. Especially with how Ian was such an easygoing pushover who didn’t seem to have any personality except to be a doormat and butt of her family’s jokes.
Never watched the second one, zero interest in the third. Tried to watch Verdalos’ Life in Ruins movie but that was so bad I turned it off 15 minutes in.
I hear you. I am Italian and I still have to find an American or British movie where Italy or Italians aren’t stereotyped to h*ll and then back….
I enjoyed the first one though I was surprised it was SUCH a massive hit. It was formulaic, but with good performances and chemistry so it all clicked. As a WASP who married into a Jewish family I kind of related to Ian, lol. I only saw a couple of scenes of the second one and wasn’t interested.
This one sounds like it could be cute.
Naya’s comment is interesting to me. There was what seemed to be some broad stereotyping in the first one, but not being Greek-American I didn’t have a sense for whether it crossed a line or not. We have good friends who are Greek-Canadian, from Toronto, and his family was actually in the restaurant business. It seems to us that his family bore some resemblance to the one in the movies, but hers did not at all.
Am I the only one who hasn’t seen any of these movies?
I Hate Valentine’s Day was so awful that I don’t have high hopes for this.
I loved the first movie. The second one was so disappointing and it didn’t need to be, like it was a slap-up job to get big money like the first. I hope the third will be generally as good as the first. It deserves to be.