'Magic Mike XXL' shoots for bigger, better

LOS ANGELES — Hazing the new Magic Mike guys was pretty simple.

Just show the fresh inductees (Michael Strahan and Donald Glover among them) their tiny costumes. "It involves wax," grins man-thong veteran Joe Manganiello, who hits the stage again alongside Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer, Kevin Nash and Adam Rodriguez in their go-for-broke sequel, Magic Mike XXL (in theaters Wednesday) "But really, there's no one that shows up and doesn't know what we're doing."

What the original male-centric stripper tale did in 2012 was get showered in cash (crumpled bills or otherwise), pulling in $113 million domestically on a $7 million budget, with a story based on Tatum's pre-fame stripper days in Tampa.

Now XXL is tempting fans with gleaming six-packs, a more diverse cast and, to fans' delight, a sharp increase in dance numbers.

In the sequel, Mike (Tatum) is becoming a successful furniture designer, but is lured back to his old bump-and-grind trade for one last hurrah with his friends at a national stripper convention (yes, a real thing Tatum once danced at). "This is the last ride," says Tatum. "We wanted to do something honest that opened up the rest of the characters and just have some fun."

New faces abound, including an extra dose of sexy women, from Jada Pinkett Smith (she replaces Matthew McConaughey as the troupe's emcee) to Andie MacDowell (a divorcée who proves to be a worthy seducer of Manganiello) and Amber Heard (Mike's new love interest). "One of the only really unbelievably smart things that we did was hire strong women and really listen to them on how they would do their character," says Tatum.

It's on a stop in Savannah that XXL opens the door to Domina, an all-black male strip joint run by tough boss lady Pinkett Smith.

Prepare yourselves: The sensuous club is populated by Strahan, Glover and Stephen "tWitch" Boss (of So You Can Think You Can Dance fame). Boss plays a stripper with moves so revolutionary, he forces Mike to up his game."tWitch is like the Fred Astaire of our time," says Tatum.

In XXL, cheesy firefighter and police officer costumes get tossed in favor of more relevant, grin-inducing acts (think Fifty Shades of Grey-inspired). By the super-sized finale, "it's these guys finding their voices and bringing their authenticity to the table, as opposed to doing the same old stale routines, " says Bomer. "We've all seen the fireman. As insanely epic as Joe made it (in the first Magic Mike) — we've seen it."

The first time around, "we made these really cool dances and everyone worked hard as hell on them because we didn't have a lot of really interesting music, we didn't have a budget for it," says Tatum. "We learned a very hard lesson — (all stripteases) end the same."

For the XXL finale, Tatum offered Manganiello, Bomer, Nash and Rodriguez input on their highly specific routines. Just, uh, don't forget appropriate footwear, advises Rodriguez.

"Anybody who wants to get freaky with whipped cream, just make sure you have the right shoes on," he says, smiling, after handpicking the 50 Cent song Candy Shop. "Anything slippery, you're in trouble."