Just days after it was reported that director Guy Ritchie was kicking around ideas for a sequel to his 2019 live adaptation of the classic Disney animated film Aladdin, the film’s star gives a somber update to those who enjoyed the live-action version and were anticipating a sequel. However, the movie’s star, Mena Massoud isn’t optimistic about the movie’s chances of being made. He made he feelings known on Twitter when he was asked if we were still getting an Aladdin 2. Massoud replied bluntly, saying it’s “Very unlikely at this point.”
Disney is on a streak of releasing a slew of live-action adaptations of their original animated movies that already had large fanbases. They have mostly been successful, especially Aladdin, with a take of $1 billion at the box office, but none of the adaptations have ventured into sequels. However, the success of Aladdin has also led to a planned spin-off with Billy Magnussen’s Prince Anders character.
It is unclear as to the reason why it may now be dead in the water. Although, it doesn’t help that the film’s Genie, Will Smith, is still doing some damage control after he did something at the Academy Awards or something. It somewhat looks like he’s starting to pick up speed getting his career together as he just announced pre-production on Bad Boys 4 and Netflix has resumed the development of Fast and Loose. In addition, proceeding the fallout, Guy Ritchie assured people that he would be bringing Smith back for a sequel.
This blunt answer from Massoud follows his string of updates while he was still waiting for a sequel to happen, where he claimed Disney is “trying to make it happen” and that new writers were bringing in a “brand new draft.” Ritchie had even expressed enthusiasm for returning since speaking about the “great experience” of making the film.
For now, Ritchie is going through back-to-back war movies with his upcoming The Covenant and his Henry Cavill WWII movie, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.