In “Magic Mike XXL,” Mike and his stripping buddies (Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer, Adam Rodriguez, and Kevin Nash) take a road trip with their new emcee Tobias, played by Gabriel Iglesias, driving up the Atlantic coast to end their careers with a bang at the Myrtle Beach male stripper convention. After Tobias accidentally wrecks their ride and can’t go on, the crew needs to find a new emcee, again. Thankfully Mike knows a woman in Savannah who runs her own place and might be just the right match. The audience is introduced to Rome in her playground — a sprawling mansion where women pay a monthly fee to attend luxurious parties with male strippers catering to their whims — and she is clearly ruling the roost. She exudes power, strolling around her room and the rest of the mansion, running the whole operation as if it’s her own personal dream world. There’s a lot of love and respect between her and the dancers, too, which is clear in both their dedication to her and in how they treat the women they dance for. Both Malik (the late Stephen “tWitch” Boss) and Andre (Donald Glover) do their best to women feel seen and beautiful, and it’s an extension of Rome’s leadership.
Rome doesn’t really like to leave her domain, which is understandable because it’s such a paradise. She does agree to it, however, in order to help Mike and the guys make their dreams of one last group show come true. They head off and she ends up meeting them in Myrtle Beach, it’s a darn good thing she shows up when she does.