Academy Award nominee Salma Hayek is joining the cast of Channing Tatum’s new "Magic Mike" sequel, replacing original female lead Thandiwe Newton.

"Thandiwe Newton has made the difficult decision to step away from the production of Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’ to deal with family matters," a spokesperson said in a statement.

Channing Tatum and the original filmmaking team, including director Steven Soderbergh, are all returning for the "Magic Mike" threequel, which is currently filming on location in London.

Steven Soderbergh, who directed the first Magic Mike film, returns to direct this pic with Reid Carolyn writing the script. Gregory Jacobs, who directed the 2015 hit Magic Mike XXL, returns to produce along with Carolin, Nick Wechsler and Peter Kiernan.

The first two films combined to gross nearly $300 million worldwide, and in 2017, the franchise spawned the successful stage show Magic Mike Live.

In Channing Tatums' February cover interview with Variety, Tatum and Carolin hinted that the lead female role would be crucial to the sequel’s plot.

"It’s really about a woman stuck at a horrible strip show like a Chippendales and then realizing, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’" Carolin said at the time. "And then Magic Mike comes down from the ceiling. She gets to go down the rabbit hole and asks: What do I really want?"

Source: Press Release