It feels like forever since it was officially announced that Disney's live action Aladdin was getting a sequel. So what's been happening over at the House of Mouse?
According to the film's star, Mena Massoud, not much. In a new interview with Screen Rant, Mena offered the following update:
"They're working on it. They're trying to make it happen. That's really all I know. As you know, usually actors are the last piece of the puzzle, so the studio has got a lot to worry about before they start thinking about the actors."
So the film is officially still in the writing phase. That doesn't mean nothing has happened. Last February it was confirmed that a story direction had been settled on and a year and a half is plenty of time for a script to be written, revised, etc. So hopefully writers John Gatins and Andrea Berloff have been hard at work getting the story into the best possible shape so that Mena and the rest of the cast hear something soon!
For his part, Mena is certainly hoping to return to the role of Disney's famous street rat:
"Obviously, I would hope that all of us come back and Naomi, Will, and I all come back and the rest of the cast, Marwan, Navid, Nasim, everybody. But right now, as far as I know, they're just working on the script and trying to make it happen."
He also addressed those Star Wars rumours. Will he be playing Ezra Bridger in the upcoming Mandalorian spin-off Ahsoka? Mena was a little less forthcoming here.
"Yeah. Just manifesting, just manifesting, trying different things. Yeah, there's not much more I can say about that, but, you know, I had heard murmurings that this role was coming up and this is becoming a real thing. So I just kinda wanted to throw my name in the ring and - yeah, just part of manifesting what you want. I think we live in an age now that's so different than '70s, '80s, 90s, Hollywood, where there was no social media. It was really just your representatives, putting things out there for you. But now, we have the ability to to put things out there for ourselves because of social media and because we can put things out there. So yeah, I just wanted to put it out there, I guess."
So does he want to join that galaxy far, far, away? And bring my two favourite franchises crashing together in the process!
"It would be a dream come true. Obviously, I've already had one of my dreams come true with Aladdin. I think I have that under my belt now and thankfully the film did really well, so I think I've proven that I can be successful in that environment. I think it would just be a great opportunity to take everything that I learned on a set like Aladdin and implement it into the Star Wars or DC or Marvel universe. We're talking about manifesting, so yeah, it would be a lot, it would mean a lot. I think I would also do a solid job and work really hard. I like what they're doing with that world and how they're expanding the universe."
Hopefully everything works out and we get to see Mena in both Aladdin 2 and Star Wars soon!
