The Mamma Mia Timeline Makes No Sense!

SPOILERS FOR MAMMA MIA (MM1) AND MAMMA MIA: HERE WE GO AGAIN (MM2) AHEAD

Just to be clear, I'm not the first person to talk about this and I doubt I'll be the last.

There are a load of continuity issues between MM1 and MM2, especially concerning Donna's diary entries, but that's not what this post is about. Want to know more? Click here. Or here.

1.
Okay. We'll start by addressing the most obvious one.

In the first movie, it is mentioned that Sophie is 20 years old. Therefore, as the first movie was released in 2008, that would mean she was born in 1988. Seems legit. However, in the second movie flashback scenes, it is clearly stated that it is set in 1979. All you number crunchers out there will have worked out that that means Donna was pregnant for NINE YEARS!

Believe it or not, this is actually wrong. MM1 was released in 2008, but it is actually set in 1999.

SIDE NOTE/QUICK QUIZ: After 1987, there were many years where at least one number in the year was duplicated (1988, 1989, 1990, etc.) How many years was it until there was another year with no duplicated numbers?

The reason it is set in 1999 is that that's when the stage show was first released. Interpret that how you want to.

So that fixes the problem of Sophie's age. Or does it?

No. It doesn't. The part of MM2 set in 1979 is almost all before Donna's pregnancy, which would make Sophie NINETEEN at the time of MM1. This is entirely plausible, as despite Amanda Seyfried being 21 at the time of filming (she was 22 by the time of release in July 2008), she could easily have passed as being 19 or 20. This would be fine, except that they specifically go out of their way to mention that she is 20.

It may also interest you to learn that when Amanda played 16/17-year-old Karen (source possibly unreliable) in 2004's Mean Girls, she was actually two years older than her character during filming, but that's hardly unusual for movies/tv-shows set in high schools.

Back to Mamma Mia.

2.
Bad Grieving
So we established that MM1 takes place in 1999, so MM2, released 10 years later, must take place in 2009, right? Wrong. It is actually set 5 years later, in 2004.

In MM2, it is mentioned that Donna died 1 year ago (i.e. 4 years after MM1 and her marriage to Sam). So, if it's been a full year, why is this the first time that Rosie and Tanya have come to pay their condolences? (Admittedly, this isn't explicitly stated in the movie, but it's heavily implied by the way they talk and act).

3.
Lily James as Donna vs. Meryl Streep as Donna.
During filming of MM2 (Aug-Dec 2017), James was 29. This would make Donna 29 in 1979 (MM2), and therefore 49 in 1999 (MM1). However, during the filming of MM1 (Aug-Sep 2007), Streep was 59; ten years older than previously advertised! (Insert ABBA-based catfish or dating site pun here).

Speaking of ten years older:

4.
Benny Andersson Cameo
I'm not going to talk about Björn Ulvaeus' cameo, because although he played an (unnamed) non-speaking character in MM2 (look at the teacher immediately to Donna's right at the start of the video); in MM1 he appeared none-canonically as a Greek god in a post-credits scene (3rd from the left, playing the lyre).

Andersson, on the other hand, appears canonically in both movies (MM1, starts at 3:07; MM2, starts at 2:40). Therefore, according to canon, Andersson was 59 in 1999, and 69 in 1979, which proves once and for all that:

Benny Andersson is a Time Traveller!

5.
Donna's Graduation
The first scene in MM2 featuring Young Donna shows her, Rosie and Tanya graduating from New College.

Things we are NOT going to talk about:

• The fact that British Universities don't have valedictorians
• The fact that even if they did, a troublemaker like Donna would never have been one
• The fact that there's NO WAY she could have got in there wearing that outfit without anyone noticing
• Donna's decision to steal an idea from The Sound of Music (I'm not going to tell you what, see if you can figure it out yourself)

What we are going to talk about is the fact that it would be impossible for them to graduate in 1979. Why? Because New College only allowed women to enrol in 1979, meaning the first women to graduate would not have done so until 1982 at the earliest.

6.

Ruby

Two things:

a) She's supposed to be dead. Quote from MM1 (Donna, on realising that Sophie's father could be any one of 3 different men):

Somebody up there has got it in for me. I bet it's my mother.

But in the sequel? Nope! She's alive!
b) Ruby is supposed to be Donna's mother. In reality, Cher is only THREE years older than Meryl Streep! Talk about child bride...

7.
Technology
This is what got me thinking about this in the first place. It's not so much of a thing in the first movie, although there is an interesting quote that sort of gets explained by item one on my list:
Donna (introducing Sky to Rosie and Tanya): This is Sky. He's going to put me on the Line.
Sophie: Online!
Although it might seem strange for a 59-year-old to not know about the World Wide Web (NOT the Internet; they are DIFFERENT THINGS) in 2008, it's slightly more realistic in 1999. No, most of the technology-based timeline gaffs happen in the second movie. To remind you, it's supposed to be 2004.
Firstly, in Harry's contract meeting they are using Microsoft Surface tablets/laptops (available at the earliest in 2012)
Sophie and Bill's Mother both own iPhones (I can't tell what model, but even the iPhone 1 wasn't released until 2007).
Bill's car is a Mercedes-Benz X-Class pickup truck. The earliest of these was debuted in 2017 and was released in 2018.

I'm finished talking about the Timeline issues, so you can leave now if you want to. I'm going to rant for a bit now, but if you scroll down there's some funny stuff about sequel naming in the Mamma Mia Cinematic Universe (MMCU).

I have two bugbears about the sequel. The first pertains to the trailer, more specifically this section:

Sophie: Grandma? You weren't invited.

Cher: That's the best kind of party, little girl.

You'll notice that it says Cher instead of Ruby or Grandma. Why? Because the marketing team are nuts. The following meeting must have happened:

Marketer 1: So we've got Cher in the movie as Sophie's grandma!
Marketer 2: Great! We should tease her presence in the trailer!
M1: So we should show her from behind?
M2; Exactly! Just the back of her head...
M1: Ooh I like that! Maybe show her shoe as well!
Marketer 3: Yeah, stepping out of a helicopter!
M1 and M2: Shut up Brian.
M1: What if we teased even more, and we heard her voice, so people can try to work out who she is?
M2: Great!
M1: Anything else?
M2: Yeah, let's show her whole face!

Must have happened.

My other bugbear is also with marketing, but this time with posters. The poster for MM1, I have no problem with. All of the main characters appear on the poster, roughly the same size, and that's fine. Officially, Sophie is the main character, but there is a fairly substantial argument that it's Donna instead, so I'm ok with them sharing equal credit. I'd also like you to note that it's Sophie's picture on the DVD spine, that'll be important in a minute.

My problem is with the poster for MM2. Meryl Streep features prominently, despite being in the movie for only two scenes! (In the 1h54m movie, she is on screen for only 3m33s and has no spoken lines. Yes, I timed it with a stopwatch. Imagine if I did something useful with my time!)

IMDb trivia:
Meryl Streep (Donna) filmed all of her scenes in one week.
Me:
What took her so long?!!

Once again, there's a significant case that both Donna and Sophie are the main characters in this movie, but this time it's Lily James' version of Donna that gets that title. So why does Streep appear front and centre of the poster and on the DVD spine?! (Yeah, I'm really fun to hang out with).

I'd like to end this post with some predictions about the sequel titles. Some people have made jokes about how Mamma Mia will have titles mirroring the Fast and Furious franchise, i.e.

The Mamma And The Mia
2 Mamma 2 Mia
Mamma Mia: Tokyo Drift
BONUS QUIZ: See if you can remember the name of the 4th F&F movie without looking it up
Mamma 5
Mamma Mia 6
Mia 7
The Mother of the Mia
Mamma Mia: Bright and Anderson (spinoff)
M9

However, we've already proved that wrong, with only 2 movies; neither having the right name. Instead, The way they will probably go is with ABBA song-based puns.

All the movies so far in the MMCU:

Mamma Mia
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again

Expected:

Mamma Mia: Knowing 3, Knowing You
Mamma Mia: 4nando
Mamma Mia: 5 Been Cheated By You (And I Think You Know When)
Mamma Mia: Summer Night 6ty
Mamma Mia: Tokyo Drift

I only made up two of the titles above (one in each list). Can you guess which ones (The others I found online invented by other fans)?