The current trend of successful Disney live-action remakes began with Maleficent and now the sequel is closer to a reality than ever before. Joachim Rønning, the director of the forthcoming sequel, recently announced that principal photography has wrapped on Maleficent 2 with a glorious picture of everybody who helped make the movie a reality. Check it out.
The crew are always the unsung heroes on any movie production as few of them ever get recognized unless they get nominated for awards. This shows just how many people were involved in making this film a reality and it's nice of Joachim Rønning to give them a moment in the sun and thank them for their hard work.
Now, Maleficient 2 will be handed off to another group of people who likely aren't even in this photo, the post-production team who handle things like digital effects, and the editing of all the shot footage into a coherent story. Exactly what that story is, is a little vague at this point. The official plot synopsis simply states that Maleficent and Aurora will find themselves working together in an attempt to protect the magical creatures that live inside the moors. We do not who they need protection from, as Ed Skrein has reportedly been cast as the villain, though exactly who his character is still being kept under wraps.
The cast image follows on another picture that Joachim Rønning posted to Instagram a few days ago. He knew the end was in sight, which was too bad because it looks like the place he got to work in Pinewood Studios in London was pretty damn impressive. A look at his monitors is carefully designed to hide anything interesting behind clapperboards, though it does reveal an apparent logo for Maleficent 2, an image which appears to be the wings that Angelina Jolie's character lost in the first film.
While Disney had turned other animated classics into live-action films before, it was really the success of Maleficent that launched the studio's trend that has since resulted in new versions of The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, and most recently, Christopher Robin. New versions of Dumbo, Aladdin, and The Lion King are planned for next year before Maleficent 2 arrives in May of 2020.
