Making a sequel to Aladdin is no easy task. At the end of the first film, the genie is no longer the genie. He can’t grant any more wishes. Plus, Aladdin and Jasmine are happily together. Where do things go next, after that perfect fairy-tale finale?
Disney hired a room full of writers to crack that task—and, according to Variety, after several months they’ve finally done it. Out of a group of writers who were working on various ideas, John Gatins (Real Steel) and Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton) have been hired to write an Aladdin sequel which Guy Ritchie is expected to direct. Will Smith, Mena Massoud, and Naomi Scott are all expected to reprise their roles too, though since the script hasn’t actually been written, no one has officially signed on yet.
There’s no word what, exactly, on the sequel will be about, but “at one point the studio and producers were looking at other tales 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,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The film will be a theatrical release and will offer a completely new take—so, sorry fans of The Return of Jafar (the animated film’s direct-to-video sequel), you won’t be seeing that in live-action. Aladdin grossed over a billion dollars in 2019 which is why the company is so excited to make a sequel. Hopefully, all the time and effort to come up with a fresh idea will spawn another diamond in the rough.