Walt Disney Pictures has added another original feature project to the slate of its upcoming Disney+ streaming service, with Entertainment Weekly reporting that development is underway on Sister Act 3.
The new film is being written by Regina Hicks (Insecure) and Karin Gist (Star), and while plot details are being kept tightly under wraps it does not appear that Whoopi Goldberg will be returning as Deloris Van Cartier, with a rep for the actress telling EW that: “It is our understanding that this is not a continuation and Whoopi is not involved.”
Goldberg had suggested earlier this year that Disney would be moving in a “different direction” with a new Sister Act, stating: “We’ve been all over Disney begging and they’ve decided that they’re going to go in a different direction with Sister Act. So it won’t be Sister Act 3, it’ll be a brand-new rendition of Sister Act. And I guess I’ll walk through a scene and that’s how they’ll say I was part of it.”
Released in 1992, Sister Act saw Goldberg playing Deloris, a Las Vegas lounge singer who witnesses a mob murder and is placed in a convent as part of the Witness Protection Program, where she assumes the identity of Sister Mary Clarence. The comedy was a smash hit, grossing over $230 million worldwide, and spawned the 1993 sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, along with a hit stage musical adaptation.