You don't get to use a genie in a lamp who will grant you three wishes without making a few enemies. In Disney's original Aladdin movie, Jafar was Aladdin's primary adversary, with Iago, the vizier of Agrabah's talking bird, causing some trouble on the side to aid his master. Jafar will remain the main villain in the live action Aladdin movie that's coming in a few years, but to help this adaptation stand out from its predecessor, the remake has hired Homeland actor Numan Acar to portray a new flunky to aid Jafar.
According to Deadline, Numan Acar has been brought on to the new Aladdin movie to play Hakim, "the head of the guards and Afar's right-hand man." With Hakim at his side, one would think that this iteration of Jafar will have less trouble trying to obtain that powerful lap so he can become all-powerful and seize control of Agrabah. Then again, if Hakim ends up being a source of comedic relief, maybe Jafar would be better off without him. We'll have to wait and see just how useful this Hakim is in the movie. Acar joins a cast that so far includes Open Heart's Mena Massoud as Aladdin, Power Rangers' Naomi Scott as Jasmine, Will Smith (does he really need a frame of reference?) as The Genie, Saturday Night Live's Nasim Pedrad as Mara (another original character) and Murder on the Orient Express' Marwan Kenzari as Jafar.
Numan Acar has been acting in Turkish and German projects since 2003, but he started building his resume of U.S. credits earlier this decade. He's arguably best known for playing Haissam Haqqani on the Showtime TV series Homeland, and his other notable appearances include Rosewater, the Point Break remake, The Promise, The Great Wall and the Prison Break revival. Along with Aladdin, Acar's other upcoming projects includes Amazon's Jack Ryan TV series and the movie Horse Soldiers, the latter of which will feature Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon and Michael Pena.
Following in the footsteps of the recent Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast remakes, the live action Aladdin movie is expected to be a more straightforward adaptation of its animated predecessor rather than a radical departure like Maleficent or the new Alice in Wonderland movies. The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s Guy Ritchie is directing the Disney blockbuster, and Game of Thrones' Vanessa Taylor penned the latest draft of the script.
The live action Aladdin movie kicked off production last month, but Disney has now announced a release date yet. Keep checking in with CinemaBlend for more updates on how the remake is progressing. In the meantime, you can browse through our movie premiere guide to find out what's being theatrically released for the rest of 2017.
