Disney has another big franchise on its hands. Jungle Cruise had barely set sail this summer before The Rock announced talks for a sequel were already underway. With the movie scoring a $211 million box office win, as well as a successful run on Disney+ Premier Access, the August announcement that a follow up had been green lit was a surprise to no one. Being based on a veteran Disney park ride, just like Pirates of The Caribbean before it, the film was developed as a stand-alone movie and potentially the start of another long-running franchise. Now that the franchise is a-go, the question is where will the cruise take us next?
Speaking to Screen Rant, producer Hiram Garcia was happy to discuss the future of the franchise as he sees it, and that is likely to see Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Jack Whitehall et al visiting new locations and get embroiled in new supernatural encounters when it comes time to shoot Jungle Cruise 2.
“Now that the fans [have] embraced us and have been asking for a sequel, we really start to have fun!” Garcia said. “We’ve met these two characters who share amazing chemistry and the world is at our disposal. We’re talking about a lot of big, fun concepts that take us to different places in the world. Who knows what mysteries and supernatural things these guys are going to encounter? I can’t give anything away, but I can tell you we are bringing the whole team back. Through the first film, we formed great friendships and love and I think this will continue for the sequel. Our established relationships are going to benefit the film even more. We’re excited with all the ideas we’ve been brainstorming on and we’re determined to get going as fast as possible.”
Disney have announced a number of placeholder slots in the coming years, one of which will be taken by the second adventure for the Cruisers, and once the House of Mouse knows it’s onto a winner, they don’t tend to hang around, so expect to see Dwayne Johnson and Blunt getting tetchy with each other as early as July 2023 if they go full steam ahead.
Jungle Cruise followed riverboat captain Frank (Johnson) aiding Dr Lily Houghton (Blunt) and her brother (Whitehall) search for a mystical plant which they expect to find on the Amazon River. By the end of the film, Captain Frank is freed from his curse to remain in the jungle, and therefore open to take his adventuring elsewhere. This leaves the route ahead wide open for the writers to take the next movie anywhere they want, although you would like to think that it will involve another jungle somewhere, as they head off for more adventures which will either link into a connected mythology or act as stand-alone movies connected by the central characters alone.
Jungle Cruise is currently available to stream on Disney+, and will be released on 4K, DVD and Blu-ray on November 16th, containing the addition of 11 deleted scenes and a whole range of bonus featurettes of behind the scenes footage on the making of the movie. This news originated at ScreenRant.
Source: movieweb.com