It's hard to imagine a world where The Godfather movies aren't seen as two of the best films ever made. Not only that, but the Francis Ford Coppola-directed films have inspired numerous other works. Whether it's quotes, moments, or even the looks of the likes of Vito Corleone, something from the Godfather movies has been the fuel for other great works. Even Josh O'Connor from The Crown has been compared to the movies... and so has Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again.
It might seem straight-up outlandish to compare The Godfather Part 2 to the second Mamma Mia movie. But the truth is that the filmmakers actually were inspired by the second Godfather when they made the follow-up to 2008's Mamma Mia! While the films bear almost no resemblance to each other, there was one element that's eerily similar.
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again's Godfather Part 2 Connection
Both movies feature the origin story of a dead character. While Marlon Brando's Don Vito Corleone isn't in The Godfather Part 2, his origin story (where he's played by Robert De Niro) is heavily featured. This is because it holds significant thematic relevance to the rise of his son, Michael, as the new Don. In Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, Meryl Streep's Donna is no longer present.
The film follows her daughter Sophie as she takes up the mantle of the hotel owner and has a daughter of her own. It's played against the coming-of-age story of a younger Donna, played by Lily James. Just like The Godfather Part 2, this was a choice because it too holds a certain thematic weight to what's going on in the present.
While these two movies are not the only films to use this story structure, the writers of Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again credit The Godfather Part 2 for the inspiration. In an oral history of the film by Vulture, co-writer Richard Curtis explained that the biggest problem they had to overcome was Meryl Streep's disinterest in doing sequels. Many believe that Meryl Streep is the magic behind Mamma Mia, so the writers knew that her character needed to be heavily featured in some way. Even if Meryl wasn't going to show up. Of course, later she did, but only in a brief cameo near the end of the film.
Figuring out the sequel to the extremely successful original Mamma Mia! was a nightmare. It was "agonizing", according to co-writer Richard Curtis. It was ultimately his daughter who suggested taking inspiration from Francis Ford Coppola's Academy Award-winning sequel. She understood that Meryl Streep's Donna had to be worked in (preferably with a moment for her to do a cameo) but that the focus just couldn't be on her since the acclaimed actor didn't want to devote her time to the sequel. The answer was making Mamma Mia 2 both a prequel and a sequel, just like The Godfather Part 2.
As for the cameo, well... make Meryl Streep a ghost... obviously...
Making Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again Without Meryl Streep
It was director and co-writer Ol Parker's idea to kill Meryl Streep's character off. He didn't really have a choice. Meryl didn't want to come and do the sequel (at least not for more than 3 days) and they couldn't tell a Mamma Mia story where Donna simply wasn't present. She had to die.
"I inherited this movie without Meryl in it, so it was my idea to kill her off. I was like, 'You got to kill her and just give her a song as a ghost.' The producers were obviously skeptical about that because that’s not quite the mood of the piece," Ol Parker said in the interview with Vulture. "There were various versions of the script where she was stranded in the Philippines and unable to make it back for Colin’s gay wedding. But if she’s not going to be in it, then you’ve gotta own that."
The writers went off to re-work the script with inspiration from The Godfather Part 2 and the goal of bringing Meryl back as a ghost at the very end. Fortunately, Meryl liked the idea. This is what got the studio and everyone else on board with the crazy notion.
While the movie may not have fired on all cylinders, the moment in the chapel between Amanda Seyfried's Sophie and her dead mother was utterly touching.
"Within the absurdity of Meryl the ghost, and the fact that it’s an ABBA song — once you embrace those things, then you just tell the truth," Ol Parker continued. "I think if you try to fake joy, it’s ghastly. If you fake tears, then you’re horrible, it’s manipulative. People want to cry. So that was the task: to go there and hopefully feel it and experience it and turn it into a happy exorcism. The glorious ugly crying, where you feel good about the fact that you’re experiencing emotion next to someone in the cinema. And obviously, it’s sad, but you can’t end the movie there. You’ve got to find a way, with a crowbar, to get them up and dancing again so that they leave and don’t tell their friends never to go anywhere near that film."
