Wish granted!
Now this is the movie news I've been waiting for. First reported by Variety, Disney are officially moving forward with a sequel to the live action Aladdin. Once the first film hit a billion dollars (and incredibly had a longer cinema run than Avengers: Endgame!) this pretty much became inevitable but it's nice to have it officially confirmed at last.
According to The Hollywood Reporter Disney set up a writers room over the summer to generate ideas for the sequel. That's right, this will be an original tale and not an adaptation of The Return of Jafar or Aladdin and the King of Thieves. It's currently not known what the story will be, but it is known that during the writers room Disney and producers Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich (returning from the last film) were looking at other stories from One Thousand and One Nights as inspiration. Now that they have settle on a story direction, John Gatins (Flight, Real Steel) and Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton, The Kitchen) have been hired to pen the script for the sequel.
The Hollywood Reporter says that Guy Ritchie is set to return as director and the principal cast of Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott, and Will Smith are all expected to return. Variety is a little more cautious, saying it's "unknown at this time" whether or not Ritchie will return to the director's chair and noting that, whilst the leads are hoped to return, "offers won't be extended to the cast until a script is ready." Producer Dan Lin did note over the summer that Ritchie returning would be their first choice so lets hope all the stars align and they're able to get the gang back together for the sequel.
The film will be a theatrical release (rather than straight to Disney+) but no mention is made on whether or not this will be a musical. I can't imagine it not being, and the prospect of a new Alan Menken score and several new songs (likely to written with Benj Pasek and Justin Paul who wrote the lyrics for Speechless and the deleted song Desert Moon) fills me with more joy than I can put into words, but I must admit I'll be a little bit nervous until it's officially confirmed.
No release date has been set (best guess would be filming next year for a 2022 release) but for now I'm just happy to know that the film is officially moving forwards. Let's make some magic!!
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