Exclusive: Dwayne Johnson In Talks For Aladdin 2
The latest Giant Freakin Robot exclusive has it that Dwayne Johnson is in talks to possibly join Aladdin 2. It would be quite the casting
When it comes to Dwayne Johnson, it would seem nearly everything he gets involved with turns into a blockbuster. He has a penchant for choosing the right productions and he’s one of the hardest working actors in the business, so it’s not a luck thing at all. He’s just got *it*, and when that’s the case the studios are going to come knocking about the biggest movies and the biggest franchises. That sure looks like it’s going to be the case once again. The latest Giant Freakin Robot exclusive from our trusted and proven source has it that Dwayne Johnson is currently in talks to join Aladdin 2 and could be working with Disney once again.
In terms of details around Dwayne Johnson joining Aladdin 2, we are still waiting on more specifics at this point. There are a number of different directions this casting could go, especially when we are talking about someone as big in the business as Johnson. For starters, some will obviously speculate that if Dwayne Johnson was to come on board, it could mean replacing Will Smith in the sequel. That’s not necessarily the case, though the timing of Dwayne Johnson’s talks here is a bit conspicuous. Will Smith played the Genie in the first live-action adaptation and was excellent in the role. But of course, his career is mired in the after-effects of the incident on Oscar Night a few weeks ago when he slapped Chris Rock. Since then, a number of different projects with Smith attached have been paused or canceled. There’s at least some chance we could be looking at a similar situation with the Aladdin sequel.
But that is merely speculation, and there’s definitely a world in which Dwayne Johnson joins Aladdin 2 with much of the original cast returning as well. That included Mena Massoud as the titular character and Naomi Scott as Jasmine. At the end of the first movie the two are married, Smith’s Geni-turned-Mariner has become human, and Marwan Kenzari’s Jafar is trapped in the genie bottle for eternity. The story could pick up there with Dwayne Johnson as a new character in the mix were he to hop on board here. Originally, when the sequel was announced to be in pre-production, producer Dan Lin had said they would be developing a new story, not one necessarily related to the original animated sequels.
And Dwayne Johnson hopping into this sequel would make considerable career sense, even for a guy who has been in some of the biggest movies and franchises out there. The first movie made a whopping $1.05 billion at the box office on its $183 million budget when it first came out in 2019. Though critics were lukewarm on the adaptation (57% on Rotten Tomatoes), that’s almost neither here nor there when it comes to the financial windfall in retelling this almost timeless story. Dwayne Johnson would surely understand as much.
From a working relationship standpoint, Dwayne Johnson has also done some Disney movies in the last couple with Jungle Cruise and Moana so there’s a relationship on that level as well. We will have to wait on more news here about Johnson possibly joining Aladdin 2. It would be an exciting development were it to happen.
