Disney’s penchant for churning out live-action fairy tales in recent years has earned them plenty at the box office, but hasn’t won them much in the way of critical acclaim. Alice in Wonderland grossed over $1 billion and Oz the Great and Powerful another $500 million (largely from 3D ticket sales), but neither film was overwhelmingly well-received by critics or audiences. In fact, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland was one of Screen Rant’s Most Disappointing Movies of 2010.
With the financial success of Alice in Wonderland, it was only a matter of time before Disney started work on a sequel. We know that The Muppets’ director James Bobin will take over the director’s chair from Tim Burton, Johnny Depp will reprise his role as The Mad Hatter, and that the as-yet-untitled sequel will hit theaters May 27th, 2016. Now, we might know who will be playing the villain of the film.
According to Variety, Sacha Baron Cohen is in talks to come aboard Alice in Wonderland 2 in that role.
There are no further plot details given, but Variety is referring to the film as Through the Looking Glass, though no confirmation of a title has been made by the studio. This certainly seems like a likely title for an Alice in Wonderland sequel as it’s also the title of the second Alice book written by Lewis Carroll. However, since Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland drew heavily from both novels – and was an original story on top of that – don’t expect Through the Looking Glass (if that is its name) to be a direct adaptation.
Glancing through the character list for Through the Looking Glass doesn’t provide much in the way of a potential villain either. The Jabberwock, the Red Queen, and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum all already appeared in Alice in Wonderland. There is one character, though, who’d make an intriguing villain as well as interesting role for Baron Cohen: Humpty-Dumpty.
As a familiar and not conventionally villainous character, Humpty-Dumpty is a perfect candidate to receive Disney’s patented twist on origin and morality to become their next great villain. Besides, the whole man-egg thing has always been pretty creepy.
Are you looking forward to the sequel to 2010’s Alice in Wonderland? What of Sacha Baron Cohen for the villain? Think he’d be interesting as a rotten Humpty-Dumpty?
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Alice in Wonderland 2 will release in theaters on May 27th, 2016.
