Given the sweaty, squealing reactions everyone witnessed during screenings of Steven Soderbergh’s male stripper movie, Magic Mike, it doesn’t take much of an expert in human behavior to realize that there are a huge group of flesh-obsessed folk out there who would more than welcome a second go-around with the taught and toned gang from Tampa. Really, a Magic Mike 2 is something of a foregone conclusion. But given Soderbergh’s constant claims that he’s now retired from directing movies, how would another Magic Mike come together?

We’ve already heard the film’s star, Channing Tatum, hint at the fact that—seeing as Magic Mike was largely based on his real-life experiences as a male stripper—he’d like to use the sequel as an opportunity to step behind the camera and try out directing a movie for himself, and some new comments from Soderbergh reveal that this might be exactly the direction a sequel would take, and that development on the film might be further along than any of us anticipated.

Recently Soderbergh did an interview with Pride Source, which was mostly supposed to be in promotion of his upcoming and supposedly last film, Behind the Candelabra, but toward the end of the chat the talk turned to where things are on a Magic Mike sequel. According to the director, not only are talks about the second film underway, but, “We actually just had a meeting about it the other day. It’s getting pretty far along.”

That certainly sounds promising, but how about some more concrete details? What would a second Magic Mike be about (you know, besides abs and g-strings)? Soderbergh goes on to explain that, “There were some stories and events that Channing lived through that we just couldn’t fit in the first one. One of them is a really hilarious and very cinematic idea that we reluctantly didn’t put in the first film, because it was such a big idea you could build a whole film out of it.”

It would seem that any specifics are still being kept under wraps, but the director assured the interviewer that, “It’s a good idea. It’s not a retread. And there will be more time spent with the characters—all of them.” So that means that all of the actors from the first film are willing to come back for a second go-around with the ladies of Tampa? To quote Soderbergh, “Oh yeah!”

But given his retirement from directing films and the indication that Channing is chomping at the bit to make Magic Mike 2 his directorial debut, why is Soderbergh sitting in on meetings regarding the film at all? He explains, “I want to help. I have some proprietary feelings about it, obviously. I want to make sure it gets done and done well, so we meet every couple of weeks to talk about where it’s going.”

In a way that makes a lot of sense, but in another “proprietary feelings” sound like the sort of things that people who are honestly dedicated to retiring from making movies wouldn’t be having. So what’s the latest news regarding Soderbergh’s so-called retirement? Are we really supposed to believe that he’s sticking to his guns this time? “In terms of movies, it’s going to be a break,” he explained, “I don’t know how extended. I’m just taking a break from that specific kind of work for a while to see if I can tear everything down and rebuild it. See if I can come back different.”

Yeah, that’s what we thought.

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