Matthew McConaughey Will Not Be in the Magic Mike Sequel

You may want to brace yourself for this one. Despite writer and star Channing Tatum’s earlier claims to the contrary, Magic Mike XXL director Greg Jacobs revealed in an interview with The Playlist that Matthew McConaughey will not be returning for the sequel to the 2012 surprise hit.

Though it would be premature to say that McConaughey’s absence will be a huge blow to the film, it’s no reach to say that Dallas ( the charismatic manipulator that McConaughey played in the original movie) was one of the main attractions in Magic Mike. Coupled with the so-called “retirement” of director Steven Soderbergh (who will still serve as director of photography, editor and camera operator on the sequel), it seems that Magic Mike XXL will have a somewhat different vibe than the original.

“It’s road trip movie,” Jacobs said. “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.” That Jacobs and writers Tatum and Reid Carolin don’t want to simply re-make the original is encouraging (see: The Hangover II), but it just won’t be the same without McConaughey. It’s now abundantly clear that those Lincoln commercials were simply designed to give us fond flashbacks of True Detective and a furtive taste of the Magic Mike XXL road trip he’ll never take.

Magic Mike XXL began preliminary shooting earlier this month and is currently slated for a July 1, 2015 release.