Back in February 2020, Disney announced they were working on a sequel to 2019’s live-action version of Aladdin. The film was said to be a theatrical release and not a Disney Plus title.
At that time, John Gatins (Flight, Real Steel) and Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton, The Kitchen) were attached to write the script and Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich would return as producers while Ryan Halprin will serve as executive producer. There were no reports on whether Guy Ritchie would return to direct the film or if stars Will Smith, Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott would reprise their roles as well.
Mena Massoud who played Aladdin in the live action film recently gave an interview with Variety providing an update on the sequel saying, “I don’t know that there is movement. There was a change with the writers, and they are working on a brand new draft. That’s all I know.”
Now, director Guy Ritchie has provided an update on the sequel in an interview with Collider saying he would still like to make the sequel and has been working on a few ideas for it.
You can see what Ritchie said below:
I’d very much like to. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed that experience. It was a great experience. That whole Disney thing, as you can imagine, is such a professional outfit. Just from that perspective, it was so much fun. I would very much like to, we’ll wait and see. We have been kicking some ideas around for some time now, but it’d be great to do, it would be great to go back there.
According to another recent report, Will Smith is set to return as Genie in “Aladdin 2,” playing an even bigger part than he did in the first film. The news comes from The Sun which reports, “This would be one of the first movies Will has shot since the Oscars slap and it is quite surprising, given that it will be for a kids’ film,” a movie insider said. “He has done a lot of work on himself and the consensus is that it will all be very much in the past by the time the movie is released.”
The sequel is said to be a brand new original story and will not be based on the animated film.
An Aladdin spinoff for Disney+ based on the character Prince Anders from 2019’s live-action Aladdin was also said to be in development for Disney+. Billy Magnussen was confirmed to reprise his role in the film. Last year, Magnussen said the spinoff was still in active development with rewrites underway but nothing has been reported since then.
You can stream the animated and live-action versions of Aladdin on Disney+ now.
Source: Collider