What does Disney wish for when one of their films grosses $1.05 billion at the global box office? In the case of their live-action adaptation of Aladdin, they hope you want to take flight on the magic carpet once again. It has been announced that Disney officially has a sequel to 2019’s Aladdin in the works.
The film is set to be written by John Gatins (Flight, Real Steel) and Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton, The Kitchen) and Guy Ritchie is also expected to return to the director’s chair. “The Hollywood Reporter” reports that Disney held a writers room in the summer to generate ideas for a follow-up and although it hasn’t been revealed where those ideas landed, apparently it was mulled over to explore other stories from One Thousand and One Nights, the collection of Middle Eastern folk tales that also houses Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Sinbad the Sailor.
The plan is for Will Smith, Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott to reprise their roles as Genie, Aladdin and Jasmine, respectively but it should be stressed that no deals have been made and no deals are currently in place. Aladdin became the highest-grossing film of Will Smith’s career so I could see his desire to want to return to see if they call can make magic once again.
While Aladdin received mixed reviews from critics (57% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes), the film proved to wow audiences and its box office performance proved to be one of the better showings last summer.
