We were pretty excited when Cher took to Twitter back in October to make the initial announcement: “Well… I’m in Mamma Mia 2” the Oscar-winning actress wrote.

And now we know even more. The sequel to Mamma Mia! – which first hit the big screen back in 2008 – will apparently see the return of many of the stars from the original film, including Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Dame Julie Walters.

If we cast our minds back to the first film, the plot revolved around Donna (played by Meryl Streep) as she came face-to-face with three of her previous boyfriends (Stellan Skarsgard, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth) on the weekend of her daughter Sophie’s (Amanda Seyfried) wedding – as Sophie tries to figure out which of the trio is her father.

According to NewNowNext, Cher will play a party-crashing grandmother (Donna’s mother).

The New York Post reported on Cher’s role in October: “She’s playing Meryl Streep’s mother. That may seem odd, since Meryl’s 68 and Cher is 71, but Cher plays Meryl’s character’s mother in flashbacks from the Sixties”.

Cher’s tweets, meanwhile, included an image of silver boots and one simple tweet that read: “FERNANDO”.

Filming officially finished in December 2017, and Lily James (who plays a young Donna in the movie) revealed that it had started in August this year. Alongside James, new members of the cast will include Jeremy Irvine (who will play a young Sam) Alexa Davies (as a young Rosie), Josh Dylan as a young Bill, and Hugh Skinner, who will play a young Harry. Finally, Jessica Keenan Wynn will play young Tanya.

According to the BBC, the plot will again focus on the relationships between the characters played by Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth in their younger years. Fans will also get to hear Abba songs that weren’t originally featured in the first film. Deadline reported that the film will act as half prequel, half sequel, alternating between present-day (Meryl) and flashbacks (Lily James). 

Read more: Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn were almost the stars of your favourite feminist classic

Mamma Mia! is said to be the highest-grossing film musical of all time, raking in more than £450 million.

As for when we can expect the film to be released, post production will take six months, meaning Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! is due for release on 20 July 2018 in the US, and 27 July 2018 in the UK - which happens to fall within days of the 10th anniversary of the original’s release by Universal Pictures. We can hear the drums already.

Images: Rex Features