Disney has released the official trailer for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. The upcoming sequel to the 2014 original brings back Angelina Jolie in the lead role.
It’s been four years since Maleficent became a monster hit for the Mouse House. Grossing $758 million worldwide, it comes as no surprise that a sequel is upon us. Elle Fanning will also be back as Princess Aurora. Jolie and Fanning will be joined once again by Juno Temple, Sam Riley, and Imella Staunton.
If those returning faces aren’t enough, the sequel has stacked the deck with some serious star power. Michelle Pfeiffer, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Ed Skrein all have roles in the movie.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’ Joachim Ronning will be taking over the directors chair. The script was written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue, Noah Harpster, and Linda Woovelerton.
Disney has had huge successes lately with live adaptations of their famous character/movies. Beautify and the Beast made over a billion dollars at the global box-office in 2017, as did 2010’s Alice in Wonderland. Close behind those two behemoths were The Jungle Book in 2016 with just under a billion dollars and the original Maleficent with almost eight-hundred million worldwide.
Maleficent only scored a 54% from critics on Rotten tomatoes but does carry a fan ranking of 70%. The movie clicked with audiences, and moviegoers loved Angelina Jolie’s take on the “Evil Witch.” The live action reimagining showed that not all things and people are as they seem.
Disney fans have two more live action remakes to look forward to in the near future. Aladdin will make its debut later this month and The Lion King hits theaters on July 19th. One thing is certainly certain, at least one of these movies is going to be a part of the billion-dollar club
Maleficent 2 originally had a summer 2020 release date. Disney pushed up the sequel to October 2019, much to the delight of fans. Disney might be hoping a pre-Halloween release will do wonders for Maleficent.
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil comes out October 18th, 2019.
