Is Disney's Aladdin 2 Still Happening? Star Mena Massoud Remains Hopeful
Disney loves a live-action remake. The House of Mouse has discovered that instead of coming up with new ideas they can simply remake their classic animated flicks into live action. The results have been pretty darn profitable, and the studio shows no signs of stopping — there are currently live-action remakes of "Moana" and "Lilo and Stitch" on the way. One of their successful live-action remakes was the 2019 take on "Aladdin," helmed by — believe it or not — Guy Ritchie. The film was a smash, hauling in over $1 billion worldwide and going on to become the ninth highest-grossing film of 2019.
When you make numbers like that, a sequel can't be far behind. Sure enough, in 2019 the film's producer, Dan Lin, revealed that Disney was in the early stages of developing a sequel. But that's the last we've really heard of the potential follow-up. The live-action "Aladdin" starred Will Smith as the Genie first made popular by the late Robin Williams, while the titular role of Aladdin was played by Mena Massoud. Massoud has seemed to cast doubt about the sequel ever happening at this point. He most recently gave an update on the potential project late last year.
No idea where it's at
Back in March of 2023, Mena Massoud Tweeted that "Aladdin 2" was "Very unlikely at this point." (The Tweet has since been deleted, but the folks at Collider caught it at the time). Then, in December of 2023, Massoud was promoting his horror movie "The Sacrifice Game" when ScreenRant asked him about "Aladdin 2." He replied: "I don't have any updates ... the strike kind of just put everything on hold. I know they were trying to get it off the ground for a long time but I have no idea where it's at." He added:
"Listen, we shot in 2017. It's been six years now since we shot and wrapped the project. So to me, at a certain point, life just goes on. So not really, I'm sure they have their reasons. I know they were trying for a long time. So I don't know what the obstacles exactly were. But maybe now after the strike is over, they'll continue to try to get it off the ground ... But I hope, I hope definitely that it happens in some way."
In other words, it really doesn't sound like this sequel is happening — but you never know.
Other films
A sequel wasn't the only potential "Aladdin" project Disney was said to be working on. In 2019, it was revealed the studio was planning a spin-off film based around Prince Anders, a character played by Billy Magnussen. Disney quickly faced backlash for planning a movie around one of the only white guys in a film filled with people of color, but the studio continued to push forward. In 2022, Magnussen said the project was still in development — but we haven't heard anything about it since.
In 2015, before the live-action "Aladdin" was even made, the studio also announced they were making a prequel movie called "Genies," with the plan being that the film would lead into the live-action "Aladdin." That never happened, and "Genies" was scrapped. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if the "Aladdin" sequel or the Prince Anders spin-off were both scrapped as well. Despite the smashing success of the 2019 "Aladdin," it feels like too much time has gone by to strike while the iron is hot.