Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise attraction has been around since the theme park first opened on July 17, 1955, and 66 years later, it finally followed in the footsteps of Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion by scoring its own cinematic adaptation. The Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt-led Jungle Cruise arrived both in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access on July 31, and just a month later, it was officially confirmed that a sequel is on the way. Now Jungle Cruise 2 producer Hiram Garcia has provided an idea of how the next installment will be bigger than its predecessor.
Hiram Garcia and Dwayne Johnson co-founded Seven Bucks Productions together in 2012, and just like Jungle Cruise, the production company will be involved in the making of Jungle Cruise 2. While promoting Johnson’s next movie, Netflix’s Red Notice, Garcia said the following to The Wrap about Jungle Cruise 2’s expanded scope:
I think one thing fans can expect is our heroes covering more territory. 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 Lily’s relationship continues to evolve are just a few of the many things we’ve been having fun playing with as we break story.
While Hiram Garcia understandably didn’t provide specifics given how early it is into Jungle Cruise 2’s development, it sounds like the sequel will be more of a globe-trotting affair, with more than just two locations being primarily spotlighted. Throw in the developing relationship between Dwayne Johnson’s Frank Wolff and Emily Blunt’s Lily Houghton, and there’s already a loose groundwork laid out for Jungle Cruise 2 to be an even bigger adventure than the first Jungle Cruise movie.
Still, like Hiram Garcia said, the Jungle Cruise 2 creative team is in the ‘breaking story’ phase, so it’ll likely be a while until we lean any concrete plot details. That said, the producer added in the same interview that the sequel is a “big priority” for the Seven Bucks Productions team and Disney, and they “can’t wait to take the fans on another ride with this group.” So even though Dwayne Johnson is next expected to shoot his Christmas action movie Red One and Emily Blunt is attached to Christopher Nolan’s Robert Oppenheimer biopic, Jungle Cruise 2 is currently receiving a decent amount of attention, though an exact timetable wasn’t revealed.
Along with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt reprising their respective roles, Jungle Cruise 2 will see Jaume Collet-Serra sitting back in the director’s chair and Michael Green returning to write the script. Johnson and Collet-Serra recently re-teamed for the DC movie Black Adam, which is in postproduction and hitting theaters in summer 2022. Meanwhile, Emily Blunt is currently shooting the Amazon series The English and will also star in a biopic about Kate Warne, the first woman to join the Pinkerton Detective Agency.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on Jungle Cruise 2’s progress, including where it ends up being slated on the theatrical calendar. For Disney+ subscribers who didn’t see the movie in theaters or shell out the money to watch it on Premier Access, it will become available on the streaming service at no extra charge starting this Friday, November 12.