Jungle Cruise had been a long time coming, and a month ago, the movie based off the popular Disney theme park attraction finally arrived in both theaters and on Disney+’s Premier Access. The Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt-led feature performed solidly on the critical and commercial fronts, and after Jungle Cruise’s opening weekend, Johnson said that discussions were underway with the Mouse House about a sequel. Well, looks like Jungle Cruise 2 is indeed moving forward.
Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are reportedly set to reprise Captain Frank Wolff and Dr. Lily Houghton in Jungle Cruise 2. THR also revealed that screenwriter Michael Green, who co-wrote the first movie’s script with Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, is returning to pen the sequel. Director Jaume-Collet-Serra is also set to resume his helming duties, making this his third collaboration with Johnson, as they also recently shot Black Adam together.
With movie theaters still operating with certain restrictions due to the pandemic, Jungle Cruise has done well for itself given the circumstances. The Disney movie opened to $35 million at the box office on its first weekend, as well reportedly pulled in more than $30 million for Disney+ subscribers who decided to watch it on the Premier Access tier. At the time of this writing, Jungle Cruise’s worldwide total stands at $187 million. Critically speaking, reception towards Jungle Cruise has been more on the mixed side among critics, ranking at 63% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, it boasts as much higher Audience Score of 92%.
Taking all that information into account, it’s hardly surprising Disney wants to keep the Jungle Cruise cinematic action going. Just like how 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl launched a film series, there’s plenty of franchise potential in Jungle Cruise, so rather than Frank Wolff and Lily Houghton’s adventuring together being a one-and-done affair, we’ll watch them embark on another journey in Jungle Cruise 2. What will they be looking for the next time around? What sort of obstacles will they run into? For now, that’s hard to say, although there’s a lot more content that can be mined from the Jungle Cruise attraction (which has existed at Disneyland since it opened in 1955) to adapt for the sequel.
In the meantime, Dwayne Johnson can next be seen in Netflix’s Red Notice this November, where he stars opposite Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds. Meanwhile, Emily Blunt has been shooting the upcoming Amazon series The English over the last several months, and she also signed on to a movie about real-life detective Kate Warne, which also hails from Amazon.
Starting tomorrow, August 31, Jungle Cruise will be available on all major digital platforms, and it’ll be released on Blu-ray, DVD and 4K Ultra HD on November 16. While we wait for more news about Jungle Cruise 2’s development, learn what movie are arriving in the near future with our 2021 release schedule and 2022 release schedule.
