It’s still early days, but plans are already in motion to make “Jungle Cruise 2” a bigger adventure than the first go-around.
The Disney film was released this July in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access on the same day, and a month later Disney officially put a sequel in motion with Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt and director Jaume Collet-Serra all returning.
While speaking with TheWrap in anticipation of the release of “Red Notice,” producer Hiram Garcia (who also serves as president of production at Seven Bucks Productions) teased plans for a more global follow-up.
“I think one thing fans can expect is our heroes covering more territory,” Garcia said. “Our first movie mainly went between London and the Amazon, but for this next adventure we have much bigger plans. That coupled with the joy of seeing how Frank and Lilly’s relationship continues to evolve are just a few of the many things we’ve been having fun playing with as we break story.”
The first “Jungle Cruise” was roughly based on the Disneyland ride of the same name, but saw Dwayne Johnson playing a skipper with a supernatural secret. Blunt played the foil to Johnson’s Frank Wolff, a skilled botanist and intrepid explorer in her own right. And by the movie’s end, Johnson and Blunt were flirting with some romantic tensions between their two characters.
Michael Green, who co-wrote “Jungle Cruise,” is back to pen the screenplay for the sequel, which Garcia said is a priority for Seven Bucks Productions and for Disney.
“We loved making that movie, and not only making that movie but the family that we created coming off of it,” Garcia said during our interview. “We love Emily Blunt and can’t do enough with her; she’s become such a close friend to the production team and the filmmakers. Her and DJ are the best of friends and have been deeply involved with us on development. We have an idea of what we want to do and the adventure we want to take these guys on. It’s a big priority for us and Disney, and we can’t wait to take the fans on another ride with this group.”
A timetable for “Jungle Cruise 2” has not yet been revealed. Currently, Collet-Serra is deep in post-production on Johnson’s DC movie “Black Adam,” and next up for Johnson and Seven Bucks is production on an original holiday film for Amazon that’s due to begin next year.
Blunt, meanwhile, just signed on to co-star in Christopher Nolan’s next film, “Oppenheimer,” opposite Cillian Murphy.
Johnson can next be seen onscreen in Netflix’s “Red Notice,” which was produced by Seven Bucks Productions and will be released on the streamer Friday, Nov. 12.