Get ready to swoon, folks: the hottest strippers in Hollywood are officially back in action.
Magic Mike XXL, the follow-up film to the wildly popular Magic Mike, began production over the weekend, Steven Soderbergh, who directed the original 2002 flick, announced on Sunday.
"It's ON!" he captioned a shot of the sequel's clapperboard, revealing that at least one scene will be shot in Myrtle Beach.
While the original flick was based on Channing Tatum's real-life adventures as a stripper, the studly star has revealed that the forthcoming film "will be a road trip movie" that leads to a stripper convention.
Can't wait to see our favorite hotties take it off? Here's what we know about the film:
Steven Soderbergh Is Passing on the Directing Torch: The 51-year-old cinematographer, who has also worked with Tatum on the 2013 film Side Effects, will not be directing the highly anticipated sequel—although he will still have a major role in the making of the film. Gregory Jacobs, who was Soderbergh's first assistant on Side Effects, will be directing the film, while Soderbergh has signed on as XXL's director of photography, camera operator and film editor. "I want to be a part of it. I want to be in the band, but I just don't want to be the frontman this time," Soderbergh told GQ in June. As for Jacobs? "He worked as a producer on the [2012] movie and has been Steven's right-hand man for almost 25 movies," Tatum told the Hollywood Reporter of the talented producer.
The Follow-Up Film Will Be More Stripper-Centric (yay!): "It will be a road-trip movie, and it will essentially be the movie that everyone thought the first one was going to be: crazy and fun and less slice-of-life and less drama," the 34-year-old actor told The Hollywood Reporterof the sequel. "The first one, we had to make not so cheesy and campy; this one we are going to swing for the fences." Likewise, Matt Bomer, who starred as Ken in the first film, told Ellen DeGeneres, "It's a strip-off to the death...It is a stripper convention – I can imagine if you lock those doors, things can get a little rowdy." Can't. Wait.
Big Dick Richie (and More of Our Favorite Boys) Are Back: Joe Manganiello previously confirmed that he will reprise his role when he spoke with E! News in June and also hinted that the original cast will all return to flaunt their flawless abs. "All the guys will be back together and causing some mayhem," Sofía Vergara's BF revealed. Similarly, Tatum also shared the same sentiment in April, "I think everyone's going to be back, I think," the actor told MTV News.
Expect to See Things You've Never Seen Before: "Without giving a lot away, we don't wanna make it a really serious, slice-of-life movie," Tatum previously told MTV. "We want to have reality in it, but we don't want to make it some dark drama. There was some darkness in the last one that I think surprised people and shocked people. This one, we want there to be a lot of conflict and a lot of struggle, but we also want there to be a s--t-ton of fun. A s--t-ton of just ridiculous stuff that you would never see in a movie."
And hopefully a s--t ton of stripping.
Magic Mike XXL is scheduled for release on July 1, 2015.