<P> Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is a 2018 musical romantic comedy film directed and written by Ol Parker, from a story by Parker, Catherine Johnson, and Richard Curtis . It is a follow - up to the 2008 film Mamma Mia!, which is based on the musical of the same name . The film stars Lily James, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Dominic Cooper, Cher, and Meryl Streep . Both a prequel and a sequel, the plot is set after the events of the first film but also features flashbacks to 1979 to tell the story of how Donna came to be on the island of Kalokairi and trying to figure out who fathered her daughter, Sophie . </P> <P> Due to the financial success of the first film, Universal Pictures was always interested in the idea of a sequel . Here We Go Again was officially announced in May 2017, with Parker hired to write and direct . In June 2017, much of the original cast confirmed their involvement, and James was cast as a young Streep that July . Filming took place from August to December 2017 in Croatia, as well as at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England . </P> <P> Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is scheduled to be released in the United States and the United Kingdom on July 20, 2018, ten years to the month of the original film's release . </P> <P> Five years after the events of Mamma Mia!, on the Greek island of Kalokairi, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is pregnant with Sky's (Dominic Cooper) child while running her mother's (Meryl Streep) villa . With Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie's (Julie Walters) guidance, Sophie will find out more of Donna's past, including how she fronted The Dynamos, started her villa on the island from nothing, met each one of Sophie's dads (Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård, and Colin Firth), and raised a daughter, without a mother to guide her . She also has an unexpected visit from someone she has never even met: her grandmother, Ruby Sheridan (Cher). </P>

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