'Aladdin' Sequel In Early Stages, According To Producer
Aladdin was another hit live-action remake for Disney, and it looks as if the House of Mouse wants to head back to Agrabah. Dan Lin, the producer of the Guy Ritchie-directed film, recently revealed that an Aladdin sequel is in the early stages over at Disney and that the powers that be are already mulling over ideas on how to bring back the characters for another adventure.
Disney made a sequel to the animated Aladdin once before – 1994's Return of Jafar. Now they appear to be willing to let history repeat itself with a sequel to the recent live-action Aladdin remake. Producer Dan Lin spoke with SYFY Wire about a potential sequel, saying:
"We'd love to. People clearly loved the movie and watched it multiple times and we get lots of fan letters and people asking us to makeReturn [of] Jafar, and I can just tell you that we're in early stages right now, but we're certainly talking about another movie. Like with Aladdin, it will not be a straight remake of any movie that's been made before, so we're looking at 'where's the best way to go with these characters.'"
It's worth noting that Lin doesn't flat-out say that Disney has already given a sequel a greenlight. But it's clear that someone, somewhere, is already talking about an Aladdin sequel. Since the film already grossed $1 billion worldwide, this revelation isn't entirely surprising.
"The audience response has really touched us in thinking about where we can go with these stories," Lin added, "and we feel like these characters have more adventures in store." And would director Guy Ritchie come back for the sequel? Lin certainly hopes so, saying: "We'd love to have Guy back and get the team back together. If we do another Aladdin movie, we'd certainly love to have him at the helm."
The 2019 live-action Aladdin is a remake of the 1992 animated film of the same name. In the story, street urchin Aladdin (Mena Massoud) falls for Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott), and seeks the help of a genie (Will Smith) to win the princess over. There's singing, there's dancing, there's questionable CGI. The reviews for Aladdin were so-so (it's currently at 54% on Rotten Tomatoes). But audiences seemed to take to the project, be it because of nostalgia, or because they were genuinely won over by Ritchie's film.