Mena Massoud says ‘Aladdin 2’ is unlikely to happen

Mena Massoud says ‘Aladdin 2’ is unlikely to happen.

“Very unlikely at this point,” Massoud tweeted(opens in new tab) in a response to a fan asking if Aladdin 2 was still happening. This seems a little at odds with a recent quote from director Guy Ritchie, who told Collider(opens in new tab) that he’d “very much like to” make a sequel. 

“I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed that experience. It was a great experience,” he said in the interview. “That whole Disney thing, as you can imagine, is such a professional outfit. Just from that perspective, it was so much fun. I would very much like to, we’ll wait and see. We have been kicking some ideas around for some time now, but it’d be great to do, it would be great to go back there.”

A sequel to 2019’s Aladdin was initially announced back in 2020 by The Hollywood Reporter(opens in new tab), which reported that Ritchie was returning to the director’s chair, but there haven’t been any further reports since. Alongside Massoud, who played the title character, the movie also starred Will Smith as the Genie and Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine. Although it received mixed reviews from critics, Aladdin made over $1 billion at the box office, so a sequel seemed like it would be on the cards.

Disney’s next live-action remake of an animated classic is The Little Mermaid, which arrives on the big screen on May 26. In the meantime, check out our guide to the other movie release dates in 2023 that should be on your radar.

This vague response offers no context as to why the Aladdin sequel might be dead, whether that be because of cutting costs, creative reasons, or other concerns. Last year, there was speculation that the sequel would be canceled in the wake of Will Smith’s Oscars scandal, but director Guy Ritchie made it clear that he was still looking to make the movie with Smith reprising his role as the Genie.

More recently, Ritchie also spoke about Aladdin 2 and seemed more optimistic than Massoud about the movie getting made. He said in February, via Collider, that there were some ideas already in mind for where to take the movie. However, he also notably said it’d be “great to do,” suggesting that the project happening still wasn’t yet set in stone.

Clearly, Massoud is not quite as convinced that the movie will happen, but for the fans wanting to see it, let’s hope Disney gives him and Ritchie those calls in the near future.