A Sequel for 'Maleficent' is Brewing at Disney

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Submitted by S.J. Mitchell on Wed, 07/15/2015 - 09:24

Deadline is reporting that Disney has begun moving toward a sequel to MALEFICENT. Due to its success, it's no surprise that the studio has reached out to Linda Woolverton to come back and write the planned sequel. Producer Joe Roth is also on-board, however the status of director Robert Stromberg is uncertain.

Given the $180 million budget and $760 million at the box office, it makes sense that Disney would want to keep the same ingredients to the spell it cast on movie-goers.

The biggest question will be if Disney can get Angelina Jolie to reprise her role, as she seldom does. She has expressed her love for the character in the past, so perhaps that provides a little enchantment for the hope of her return:

"I love this character. We did it as a team and Linda wrote a beautiful script and I just tried to do my best to give everybody what they expect from her, 'cause I certainly loved her when I was a kid and I didn't want to disappoint the fans. I figured if I was having fun, they'd have fun." - Angelina Jolie from a 2014 interview with Access Hollywood.

As the fourth highest grossing movie in 2014, and the recent successes of turning animated fairy-tales into live action adventures, a sequel to Maleficent seems like a financial no-brainer. What kind of story they decide to tell remains to be seen as, if I recall, there wasn't any loose strings that needed to be tied up by the movie's end.