This is just brutal. We’re still mourning the loss of Dame Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey, Harry Potter film series) who died in late September, and this week we got a piece of news that will make us miss the British star even more. During an interview in The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Whoopi Goldberg (Till) revealed that, as we suspected and hoped, Smith was going to be featured in the highly anticipated Sister Act 3.

During the interview, Whoopi sounded hopeful about the progress of Sister Act 3 but revealed that the loss of one of its main stars was certainly an unexpected — and not welcome at all — bump in the road. Whoopi suggested that the script of the new movie will have to suffer some alterations to reflect the abscense of the Mother Superior (Smith). She stated:

“We’re having to make some readjustments, because we just lost Maggie Smith, as you know. We will get it done. We’ll get it done. It’s a shift.”

It’s possible that, because of those changes to the script, Sister Act 3 might get delayed even more. Earlier this year, a trusted source revealed that the screenplay was finished, which probably indicates that the wheels were starting to turn on a filming schedule. Now, however, screenwriter Madhuri Shekar (3 Body Problem) will have to go back to the drawing board in order to write such an important character off — it’s highly unlikely that the role will get recast.

Who Did Maggie Smith Play in ‘Sister Act?’

In the original Sister Act, Smith‘s character was a strict nun who was the only one that knew that Deloris Van Cartier (Goldberg) wasn’t a real nun, but actually a woman in witness protection. Because of that, she’s forced to tolerate an unwanted presence at the convent that wants to change the way the choir works. Eventually she comes around and becomes one of Sister Deloris’ closest friends.

Sister Act 3 has been in the works for a long time. The movie was first announced almost a decade ago, and it took Disney six years to announce Shekar as a writer working with Tim Federle (Better Nate Than Ever) in the director’s chair and Tyler Perry (Netflix‘s Beauty in Black) acting as producer. Only in 2024 we got confirmation that the movie was indeed still happening, after some years of radio silence. Now, we’ll have to wait a bit more until the cameras finally start rolling.

Disney is yet to reveal further details of Sister Act 3, including additional (and returning) cast members and its expected release window.

via Collider