Aladdin 2 in Development! Is It Too Late?
A sequel to the live action remake of Aladdin is in development. This has been rumored for a while now, but it seems like filming will begin in 2026 with the leading cast returning for it. What do I think about it? Is this another cash grab from Disney?
My Thoughts
To answer the second question I asked above “is this another cash grab from Disney?” The simple answer is yes, I feel like Disney is making this movie because they know it’ll print money. When the live action remake of Aladdin released in 2019, that was in Disney’s hot streak and made over $1 billion. Generally speaking it’s one of the live action remakes that people are more positive on. It only has a 58% on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s not a beloved film but it’s one of the remakes that people are generally frustrated by (even though they are some of those people). The other thing to look at is I think Disney is just trying to figure out what to do with these live action remakes. I believe late last year it was reported that a live action remake of Tangled was in development. Snow White comes out and bombs and it’s said that the live action remake is canceled or put on the back burner. Lilo & Stitch has the biggest Memorial Day opening weekend of all time and makes over $1 billion and suddenly Tangled is back to being turned into a live action remake. As long as there’s a live action remake that makes a lot of money, likely one that makes over $1 billion Disney wants to make a sequel. Even last year they did Mufasa: The Lion King, a prequel/sequel to The Lion King (2019) one of the live action remakes the people crap on the most but it made $1.6 billion at the box office. Mufasa: The Lion King only did $720 million, so a big step down financially from the original but it’s still $720 million and this decade that’s a lot of money for Disney because they haven’t had a whole lot of hits recently. On the one hand, it’s not too surprising to me that Aladdin (2019) is getting a sequel because it was financially successful.
But I think the problem and frustration with this film likely happening is that we’re getting another cash grab movie instead of a fresh clever new original film from Disney. They would put some incredible original films, whether live action or animated, that people loved. 22 years ago they did Pirates of the Caribbean which of course is based on a ride but it has this original and fresh energy to it. We don’t get Disney movies like that anymore. If this film actually happens and it makes over $700 million, it’s teaching Disney that we want more sequels, remakes, prequels whatever they may be, because we show up those films not when they put out something original and fresh.
One final thing about this film that I find interesting is that they’ve talked about doing a sequel for a while. Variety reported on this film being made in February 2020, that’s nearly six years ago. I don’t know what direction they’re going to go with the sequels but they have two direct to video animated sequels they can easily adapt. They might want to do an original sequel that’s not an adaptation, but it still shouldn’t take six years to figure out a sequel to Aladdin (2019). It’s not like that cast has been busy. Will Smith has had a few movies come out since Aladdin (2019), but it’s not like he’s had an insanely busy schedule. Naomi Scott has been in two movies since Aladdin (2019), one came out in 2019 and her second film, Smile 2 released just over a year ago. Aladdin himself, Mena Massoud, he’s been in stuff but it’s a lot of Hallmark Christmas movies and projects that people don’t talk about.
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