Ask and you shall receive! Whoopi Goldberg revealed Sister Act 3 is in the works because of fan demand.
The View cohost, 64, shared the news during her appearance on the Tuesday, October 6, episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden.
“For a long time, they kept saying no one wanted to see it,” she explained. “And then quite recently, it turns out, that may not be true. People may want to see it. So, we’re working diligently to try to figure out how to get the gang together and come back.”
Goldberg starred in the 1992 film Sister Act as Deloris Van Cartier, a lounge singer who joins a convent after being placed in a witness protection program. The film was a box-office hit — earning over $230 million — and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit was released one year later. A Broadway musical based on the movie kicked off in 2011.
The Ghost star told host James Corden that Sister Act has always held a special place in her heart.
“It’s fun and it feels good,” she said. “And you know, nobody’s mad. It’s just, listen — bad singing, great singing, OK singing and then nuns. What’s better than that?”
Goldberg reprised her role as Deloris for a limited run of the Sister Act musical in London in October 2019. She explained on Late Night With Seth Meyers at the time that people weren’t interested in continuing Deloris’ story.
“We tried to a really long time to get them to make Sister Act 3 and everybody kept saying to us, ‘No one wants to see that. It’s an old title,'” Goldberg recalled. “I said, ‘I’m an old broad. Why would it be a bad thing?'”
She continued, “When they said, ‘We want to take it back on the stage, and do something, and I’m one of the producers, you wanna do it?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, if I could play Deloris.’ And they said, ‘Would you?’ And I said, ‘Well, you’d have to explain that she’s a little older, but it doesn’t change the fact that she is who she is.'”
Two years earlier, Goldberg invited Kathy Najimy (Sister Mary Patrick) and Wendy Makkena (Sister Mary Robert) for a Sister Act reunion on The View. The Color Purple star revealed during the episode that Bette Midler was originally tapped to portray Deloris.
“It was [her] movie and she couldn’t do it. She turned it down. They went through 100 million people and then got to me,” Goldberg joked.
