Establishing Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus as Guardian Angels in the MM!CU (Mamma Mia! Cinematic Universe)
In the year of our lord 2008, Mamma Mia! hit cinemas with a one way ticket to a Greek island and an Abba song in their heart. Fans of both Abba and the preliminary stage musical were delighted– a kick-ass cast, beautiful production design, and on location shooting left the world with a beloved movie musical. It seemed like a no-brainer for a sequel, which we would be graced with in 2018. Thus, the MM!CU (Mamma Mia! Cinematic Universe) was born.
Both films contain cameos by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson: famed Abba members, composers of the stage musical and films, and executive producers– but their cameos may signify something deeper than fan service. I propose that Benny and Björn’s cameos in both films are not cameos at all, but instead guardian angel characters who have been tasked with watching over Donna throughout her life.
The catalyst for this idea was the fact that Benny and/or Björn are only present one time with Sophie (the Waterloo sequence at the end of Mamma Mia!), but every other time they appear, they are present in scenes that revolve around Donna. This implies that they are not Sophie’s guardian angels, but instead Donna’s. Just so that we are all on the same page, here are the following scenes in which we see Benny or Björn in both films. This list is going to go from Mamma Mia! (2008) and then onto Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), but when exploring the implications of these scenes, we will move chronologically through Donna’s life (going from Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) to Mamma Mia! (2008)).
We first see Benny as the piano player in the dock dancing sequence of the Dancing Queen scene in the first film. We see him situated at his piano on a boat throughout the end of the number.
We see Björn at the end of Mamma Mia! as a Greek God that looks down upon the rest of the cast during the Waterloo sequence. Their position above the rest of the cast implies that they are situated on Mount Olympus. The other Greek Gods are portrayed by the various villagers seen throughout the film.
This is the end credits scene, which breaks from reality and acts like a full blown Donna & the Dynamos concert guest starring the three Fathers as well as Sophie and Sky.
In the second film, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, we see Björn in the first three minutes of the film as a teacher at Donna’s school, sitting on the stage during their graduation ceremony (the When I Kissed The Teacher sequence).
Benny again appears in his favorite position: behind a piano. Here, we see Benny as the piano player at a French cafe during the Waterloo sequence.
Now that we have established where Benny and Björn appear in both films, we can now start to see a narrative emerge based on what events they decide to be present for. If we start when Donna is younger, we see Björn present as a teacher at her school, front and center to her hijinks when she begins to sing When I Kissed The Teacher. This is her graduation ceremony, a very important moment in her life and one that establishes her wild child personality that is alluded to in the first film when Donna is speaking to Tanya and Rosie about their pasts:
“Yeah, whatever happened to our Donna? Life and soul of the party, el rock chick supremo?”
— Tanya (Mamma Mia!)
“I grew up.”
— Donna (Mamma Mia!)
We can also see that Donna establishes that she thinks Sophie is wild in a different way– Sophie wants to settle down quickly, which is a direct opposite to Donna’s life experiences and what she values:
“Oh, God! Who knows? You know, I do not know what’s going on in that child’s head sometimes. She wants a big white wedding, and she and Sky are making all kinds of plans for the hotel. Sometimes I think they’ll never leave.”
— Donna (Mamma Mia!)
While Sophie has had Donna as well as a literal and figurative village of people to look over her throughout her life, Donna was left to her own devices and thus, turns into a free spirited and extremely independent young woman and subsequent adult. Sophie doesn’t need a guardian angel, but Donna’s lack of support and presence from her mother results in her needing some sort of supervision, even if that supervision happens to be supernatural.
“Well, because of what you’ve done. I mean, the Dynamos, raising a kid, and running a business all on your own.”
— Sophie (Mamma Mia!)
“Well, honey, I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t go home, you know. When I got pregnant, my mother told me not to bother coming back. And I wouldn’t have had it any other way. My God, look at what we’ve had.”
— Donna (Mamma Mia!)
Björn’s presence at her graduation establishes him as looking over her during her wild days. When we see him in Mamma Mia! as a Greek God, we can interpret this him seeing that Donna now has no need for her guardian angel any longer, as she has established her own village through her new husband Bill, her friends, and the other two Dads. Björn can return to his spot on Olympus and is no longer required to be boots on the ground to look over Donna.
We can draw a similar parallel to Benny’s presence as the piano player in both Dancing Queen (Mamma Mia!) and Waterloo (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again). His presence in both France and Greece imply that perhaps he floats from country to country with Donna, working as a piano player in each place that she visits in order to keep an eye on her. While we don’t get as much of a satisfying payoff by seeing him as a Greek God in the final Waterloo sequence of Mamma Mia!, I would argue that there is one God laying on the ground with a chalice of what we can only assume is wine (presumably this God is Dionysus), and we never actually see their face. Who is to say that this is not Benny, finally free from his worldly duties, and allowing himself to indulge in a drink?
The next installment of the MM!CU is rumored to have started production, so will we again get appearances by these two guardian angels? This may be dependent on what time period the next film takes place in. If we follow the pattern established by the first two films, we will be seeing Sophie and Sky raising their child while also being paralleled by Donna’s mother’s young adulthood, perhaps leading to a reconciliation within the family by Cher’s character. Perhaps we find out who Donna’s father is, bringing us completely full circle. The one thing we do know– the next film is sure to be a welcome addition to the MM!CU.
Now I know what you’re thinking– normally guardian angels are portrayed as unnoticed characters within cinema. But I would argue that Mamma Mia! and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again are not normal films. They are cinematic experiences that redefine what a movie musical can be. They are groundbreaking establishing films for a world in which Cher can play Meryl Streep’s mother even though their ages are actually only three years apart. This is the magic of the MM!CU. This is the magic of Abba, which envelops a Greek island and dares to ask: what if a young woman had three possible fathers and they never really found out who was actually the father and they were just kinda okay with that? And what if one of those fathers was gay? And what if the other was Swedish? And how will this impact global morale?
The Mamma Mia! Franchise is not a normal string of movies. They are something so much more.