Watch out, SPOILERS are ahead for Cruella in theaters and Disney+ Premier Access.
Now that we know why Cruella de Vil got her name along with her twisted motivations to steal the spots straight off Dalmation puppies, we do wonder where the story could go next in the live-action realm. Clearly, Cruella has brought together a whole new take on the 101 Dalmatians villain with Craig Gillespie’s ‘70s London punk vibe. Could we see Cruella 2 next?
Following the success of Disney’s other villain origin story Maleficent in 2014, Angelina Jolie continued her role as the Sleeping Beauty antagonist for a sequel called Mistress of Evil that came out in 2019. Depending on the commercial success of Cruella, Emma Stone could theoretically come back in more fabulous fashion getups for a sequel that would seemingly take the storyline in the territory of the original story with Anita and Roger.
CinemaBlend spoke to key cast members about the Cruella ending, Paul Walter Hauser, who plays one of Cruella’s henchmen Horace shared his interest in reprising his role alongside Joel Fry’s Jasper, sharing how he would be interested in keeping the narrative going with these words:
I think I would for sure do it again if Joel was on board and if there was someone creative behind it. I think when you look at the people behind Cruella, those people being Dana Fox and Tony McNamara and all the writers, our cinematographer Enico and Craig Gillespie directing and Jenny Beavan who did the wardrobe. All these amazing creative people infuse this film with such purpose, originality and style. That’s what makes it pop and really special and unique. So I would love to do this character again in any iteration again so long as it had a lot of talented folks that were bringing it to life.
In other words, the magic of Cruella really lies in the whole production of the movie and Paul Walter Hauser (and likely much of the cast) may be hesitant to return if there was a complete shift in creatives. The movie is directed by I, Tonya’s Craig Gillespie and it enlisted the writing talents of The Great’s Tony McNamara and Couples Retreat’s Dana Fox. It’s true. Cruella would not be Cruella without its impeccable style.
On another note, Cruella sets up a lot about the world of the movie that has the potential to be explored further. For one -- and minor spoilers -- it introduces its own version of Anita and Roger, who have larger ties to Cruella’s origins than before when they are each given Dalmatian puppies of their own before presumably falling in love after the credits for Cruella roll. Kirby Howell-Baptiste, who plays reporter Anita Darling in the movie shared her thoughts on reprising the character:
I would love to. What I think is really beautiful about how the film ends is that it ends in a way that is really open, so it could go anywhere. What I would love to see if there is more in the future is just seeing in what ways Anita and Cruella’s paths continue to interact because I think were so used to stories about breakups that are traditional between lovers that it’s really interesting when you see and I think it’s very relatable for a lot of women to see friendship breakups and to see friendships evolve and grow and how you come together and move apart with age, so I think there’s more to see.
Given how Emma Stone’s Cruella approaches the other tragedies in her life, we don’t expect her to take a friend breakup well between her and Anita. Though in Cruella, it’s much more of a business partnership that allows the fashionista to be competitive in her war against the Baroness. What do you think? Would you like to see Cruella 2? Vote in our poll below.
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