A follow-up to the live-action Aladdin movie is being discussed at Disney, producer Dan Lin reveals. Directed by Guy Ritchie, the movie starred Will Smith as the Genie, Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine, Mena Massoud as Aladdin, and Marwan Kenzari as Jafar. It grossed over $1 billion at the global box office, becoming the fifth-highest grossing film of 2019.
While it was a smash hit at the box office, Aladdin received mixed reviews from critics. Smith, Massoud and Scott’s performances were hailed, as well as the aesthetic and music of the blockbuster. However, they were less than thrilled with the way Ritchie handled the movie’s direction, as well as the tweaks made to Jafar’s character. Despite all those complaints, it seems like its impressive sales turnout will be the factor to dictate Aladdin’s future, as Disney is apparently open to a sequel.
Speaking with Comic Book, Lin revealed that the positive reaction from fans evidenced in Aladdin‘s box office, not to mention fan letters expressing how much they loved the movie, are indication that the public might want more of the narrative. With those as their gauge, Disney is contemplating moving ahead with a follow-up film.
We have now. We certainly when we first made the movie wanted to just make the best movie we could and let audiences tell us if they wanted to see more. And I would say resoundingly audiences want to see more. They’ve watched this movie multiple times. We have lots of fan letters about people who really go back and they bring their friends and bring their family. And so we feel like there’s more story to tell. We are going to treat it the same way we treat the original Aladdin movie and not going to do a shot by shot remake of anything that’s been done before. We’re really looking at what’s been done before in the past and the home video, and there’s just more story to tell with the underlying materials. So without giving away too much, we are certainly exploring where we can go with this franchise.
It’s no secret that fans were skeptical of the Aladdin live-action remake (or Disney classic remakes in general). Fans grew more concerned when the first teaser came out, and the effects, particularly with regard to Genie, were less than impressive. The movie turned out better than what people expected of it, although that doesn’t say much about its quality considering that the public had low expectations for the blockbuster. Regardless of the reviews, at the end of the day, Disney is a business entity and any property turning a profit merits a potential follow-up to take advantage of its mass appeal.
The House of Mouse already attempted to follow up the 1992 classic with the direct-to-video Aladdin: The Return of Jafar, but chances are that they won’t pull another narrative from that, or the other sequel titled Aladdin and the King of Thieves. At this point, it’s important to note that there’s no official go ahead for the Aladdin sequel, but assuming that Disney moves forward with it, the least they can do is make sure that its existence is justified. While these remakes continue to perform well at the box office, their arguably lackluster quality tarnishes the reputation of their well-loved animated versions.
