Star Mena Massoud revealed not that long ago that he was struggling to find work in Hollywood, despite playing the title character and taking top billing ahead of Will Smith in a mega budget Disney blockbuster that earned over a billion dollars at the box office, although he’s since managed to snag his first major role since Aladdin in a Netflix rom-com.
Luckily for the young actor, there’s a sequel in development, but the bad news is that it hasn’t gained much forward momentum since first being announced in February of last year. Massoud, Smith and Naomi Scott are all expected to return, with the script currently being written by John Gatins and Andrea Berloff.
A spinoff was additionally announced for Billy Magnussen’s Prince Anders, and as of this past April it remains in active development, but insider Daniel Richtman is now reporting that a prequel focusing on Aladdin’s younger days is also on the cards. Cruella barely managed to justify its own existence by filling in the gaps in the iconic villain’s backstory, and the street kid from Agrabah has much less in the way of personality than Ms. De Vil, so it’s hard to imagine many folks getting hyped at the prospect of another origin story.
Richtman also recently offered that a film tracing the early days of Jafar was in the works as well, so if his information regarding the Aladdin origins project pans out, we’ll be getting a straightforward sequel to Guy Ritchie’s remake, a spinoff focusing on a supporting player and two prequels to give audiences the cinematic universe that maybe a few of them are clamoring for, if hardly the masses.
