'Maleficent' sequel: Will Angelina Jolie come back?
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Molly Driscoll Staff writer
A sequel to Disney鈥檚 hit movie 鈥淢aleficent鈥� is reportedly in the works.
鈥淢aleficent鈥� was released in 2014 and starred Angelina Jolie as the villain from the 鈥淪leeping Beauty鈥� fairy tale. The movie co-starred Elle Fanning, Imelda Staunton, and Sharlto Copley and served as an origin story for Maleficent, framing the narrative to explain her actions as a vengeful fairy who casts an evil spell on Sleeping Beauty.
The movie was a box office hit, becoming the eighth-highest-grossing movie of the year, according to the website , and according to , a sequel is now in the works.聽
According to Deadline, Linda Woolverton, who wrote the original film, is on board to write the sequel. The big question is, will Jolie return? Many critics praised her performance, with Monitor film critic Peter Rainer writing of the film, 鈥淎t least Disney was smart enough to cast Jolie.聽She has a genuinely heroic presence.鈥� Deadline writer Mike Fleming Jr. writes, 鈥淚鈥檓 told the studio is keeping Jolie in the loop and that the sequel will be written for her to reprise.鈥澛�
asked Jolie back when the first movie came out whether she鈥檇 be interested in reprising her role and she replied, 鈥淧ossibly. I don鈥檛 know. I enjoyed it. I just feel聽like we did this one thoroughly and I don鈥檛 think there鈥檇 be another. I feel like this is the one. If I was going to ever do a Disney one, this is the one I wanted to do. And I think we鈥檝e done it well.鈥澛�
A sequel to 鈥淢aleficent鈥� was easy to predict. But often, when fairy tales are turned into movies, the fairy tales involved get a new spin. (Yes, the basis of movies like 鈥淢aleficent鈥� and an upcoming 鈥淭inkerbell鈥� movie are fairy tales or classic books, but we take what we can get creatively in remake-happy Hollywood.) If Disney announced, for example, that it鈥檚 doing a revisionist take on 鈥淎laddin鈥� villain Jafar 鈥� something that doesn鈥檛 seem impossible after the success of movies like 鈥淢aleficent鈥� and 鈥淐inderella鈥� 鈥� at least the 鈥淎laddin鈥� story is being rewritten in some way. But a 鈥淢aleficent鈥� sequel seems more likely be just that, a sequel, without a fresh take on the story, because a world has already been created in the first film.聽
Fans will have to hope that a new 鈥淢aleficent鈥� movie would be as satisfying creatively as possible and not just be a retread of a film we鈥檝e already seen.
