Julia Garner still wants to play Madonna: Will the shelved biopic finally happen?

For a film about one of pop music’s greatest reinvention artists, Madonna’s biopic has had a remarkably difficult time reinventing itself. Scripts have changed, studios have walked away, budgets have ballooned and the woman at the centre of it all has tried more than once to get the story back on track. Now Julia Garner, the actress once chosen to play Madonna, has added another twist: she still thinks the movie should happen.

“I think the movie has to get made,” Garner told ELLE in a new interview. “But we’ll see...”

That is hardly a production announcement. But after years of uncertainty, even Garner saying the words out loud is enough to reopen the question: could the Madonna biopic actually return?

Julia Garner says the Madonna biopic isn’t dead — but she isn’t promising a comeback

Garner’s comments come after a long period in which the project appeared to have disappeared from Hollywood’s release calendar. Universal Pictures stopped developing the film in 2023, leaving the project, which Madonna had planned to direct, in limbo.

The film had already travelled through several versions of its screenplay. Juno writer Diablo Cody was initially attached, while Erin Cressida Wilson later worked on another version. Garner had been selected to play Madonna in 2022 after an intense audition process that reportedly included singing, dancing and choreography.

The role was never a casual casting choice. Garner was expected to portray Madonna across a story spanning the singer’s rise from aspiring performer in New York to one of the most influential pop stars in the world.

And then the film stopped moving.

Madonna says her life story simply became too expensive for Hollywood

The biggest clue about what went wrong came from Madonna herself.

In June 2026, she told Interview magazine that a dispute with Universal over the film’s scale and budget helped bring the project to a halt. Madonna argued that the sheer size of her life story demanded a substantial production.

“I’ve had an extraordinary life. I’ve had a huge life, so I needed a big budget. You know what I mean?” Madonna told the magazine.

“I was supposed to make a movie about my life. I worked on my script for two years and spent two years at Universal Studios with the line producers doing budgeting and casting,” she added.

That explanation makes the saga rather more complicated than a simple cancelled movie. Madonna wanted to tell her own story, direct it herself and make it on a scale she believed matched the life she had lived. Universal, meanwhile, ultimately did not move forward with that version.

The project reportedly carried the working title Who’s That Girl, borrowing the name of Madonna’s 1987 film and its hit song.

Julia Garner spent years preparing to become Madonna before the cameras stopped

Garner’s attachment to the role dates back to 2022, when she emerged from a highly competitive casting process as Madonna’s choice to play her on screen.

For an actress known for dramatically disappearing into characters, it was an unusually demanding challenge. Garner had to prepare not simply to resemble Madonna, but to capture a performer whose career has been built on changing her image, voice, movement and public persona.

The project’s collapse therefore did not simply mean losing a future film credit. Garner had invested substantial preparation into a role that was supposed to define a major chapter of her career.

Yet she and Madonna did not drift apart when the movie stalled.

The Madonna-Julia Garner friendship survived the biopic’s collapse

In December 2023, Garner appeared onstage with Madonna during the singer’s tour stop in Brooklyn. Their relationship has continued well beyond the abandoned production.

That friendship became particularly visible again when the pair worked together on the second season of Apple TV+’s The Studio. Garner plays a fictionalised version of herself, while Madonna appears alongside her in the Hollywood satire.

The irony is hard to miss. The actress who was supposed to spend an entire feature film playing Madonna ended up playing herself opposite Madonna instead.

Garner told ELLE that filming with the singer in Venice was an unforgettable experience. “It was beyond! I always say it’s fine with the Italian queen!” Garner said. “It was incredible. I’ve never had an experience like that. Food’s terrible, by the way. I had some of the worst Italian food in my life. But Venice is incredible.”

Madonna may have lost the movie, but she hasn’t lost Julia Garner

The friendship appears to have outlived the production itself. Garner said she and Madonna now text casually, and her description of the singer is strikingly different from the formidable public image Madonna has cultivated for decades.

“She’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. Like, actually. And people don’t know that,” Garner said.

That relationship could make any future revival of the biopic particularly interesting. Garner already has Madonna’s backing, knows the material and has spent years preparing for the part. The missing piece is whether a studio is willing to finance the version Madonna wants to make.

Madonna has kept teasing the story even after Universal walked away

The biopic may be stalled, but Madonna has not completely abandoned the idea of putting her story on screen.

In 2026, she continued to reference the project while promoting Confessions II. A short film connected to the album even featured Garner, creating an unexpected reunion between the actress and the character she was once supposed to portray.

Entertainment Weekly has also listed Madonna’s biopic among a group of major celebrity projects stuck in development limbo, noting that the film remains on indefinite hiatus rather than having returned to active production.

And that distinction matters. There is currently no confirmed production restart, release date or new studio announcement for Garner’s Madonna biopic.

What exists instead is something much more Hollywood: a project that refuses to completely disappear.

So, will Julia Garner actually play Madonna?

For now, the honest answer is: nobody knows.

Garner clearly still wants the role. Madonna has continued to talk about the film and her disagreements over how it should be made. And the two women have maintained a friendship that has only become more visible since the original production collapsed.

But “I think the movie has to get made” is not the same thing as saying the movie is officially back.

For a project that has already survived multiple scripts, a studio shutdown, a budget battle and years of uncertainty, perhaps that is exactly the kind of answer one should expect.

The Madonna biopic is not back.

But, judging by Garner’s latest words, it may not be gone either.

(With inputs from ANI)