Tim Burton's ALICE IN WONDERLAND has its fans and detractors but there's no denying that the movie killed at the box office. $334 million domestically. Over $1 billion worldwide. Disney had already announced plans for a sequel in December but it looks like Tim Burton won't be returning to Wonderland.
The Wrap is reporting that James Bobin (THE MUPPETS) is in early talks to helm the sequel. A source for The Wrap made it very clear that these talks are in the early stages and Bobin hasn't met with the producers for the film yet. One person Bobin apparently needs to talk to first is actor Johnny Depp, who is likely to return even though no official announcement has been made.
James Bobin is currently working on THE MUPPETS…AGAIN! and doesn't have any commitments after that movie so he'll certainly have the time to direct the film Disney goes with him. Obviously ALICE IN WONDERLAND 2 is a much bigger film than THE MUPPETS so it'll be interesting to see how he handles the directing duties.
Regardless of how you feel about ALICE IN WONDERLAND a sequel is going to happen. When a movie makes that much dough it'd be more of a surprise if there wasn't a sequel. But will it be able to duplicate the same success the first film had, especially since the excitement for 3D films has dropped since ALICE IN WONDERLAND was released in 2010?
At this time it's not clear when ALICE IN WONDERLAND 2: MAD HATTER'S BOOGALOO might hit theaters.