Fans were very concerned when Streep’s alter ego did not appear in much new footage in the trailers and appeared to be referred to in the past tense.
Whilst she is confirmed to have filmed new scenes for Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, speculation has mounted that present-day Donna will be seen ‘in spirit’, whilst Lily James plays her younger self.
Baranski said at this weekend’s press conference: “I agreed to do the sequel without even seeing the script!
“My first question was, ‘are the same people on board’, and the word was that people are going to move heaven and earth to arrange their schedule – so that was number one.
“When I read the script, I was so taken aback by how original it was, to take this original story and do a sequel and you see the maturation of these characters that we’ve come to know.
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“They’ve been informed by loss and things have happened in their lives – big things.
“[To] see them coming together with a new emotional depth and then the brilliance of taking it back in time with six drop dead talented sexy young performers doing all of those sexy rock and roll songs…
“It’s really just a genius construct. Everybody waited ten years to make sure it was going to be exactly right and I really think they got it dead right.”
Some fans also thought The One Show presenter Alex Jones strongly alluded to Donna’s rumoured death when Baranski and Amanda Seyfried appeared for an interview late last week.
Jones asked the actresses to tease the story without giving away “the big spoiler”, which many on YouTube took to be an indicator of Donna’s fate.
Baranski and Seyfried are joined in the returning cast by Julie Walters, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgard and Colin Firth, with Dominic Cooper also back as Sky.
Cher is also aboard, playing Streep’s mother Ruby.
The first Mamma Mia movie broke a slew of records worldwide, and now some more ABBA songs are being used as the basis for its sequel.
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again is out on July 20.