Key Points
Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt tell Entertainment Weekly where their Jungle Cruise sequel stands.
Johnson cites “new leadership” as the reason for many shifts in direction.
John and Blunt currently star together in the Mark Kerr biopic The Smashing Machine.
Those still hoping for a Jungle Cruise sequel might be in de-Nile.
As his awards season prospects set sail for the 2026 Oscars, star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson exclusively tells Entertainment Weekly that plans for a sequel to his 2021 Disney blockbuster Jungle Cruise — also starring his longtime friend and current Smashing Machine costar Emily Blunt — have sunk.
When asked by The Awardist podcast host Gerrad Hall if a long-rumored follow-up to the film, which managed to earn $220 million at the global box office just as movie theaters reopened en masse following the COVID pandemic, was still on deck, both Johnson and Blunt gave a simple reply.
Frank Masi/Disney
Jack Whitehall, Emily Blunt, Dwayne Johnson in ‘Jungle Cruise’
“I don’t think so,” both stars say, with Johnson, who also produced the film, elaborating further on why the Jungle Cruise sequel might not happen — at least in the near future.
“I think when Disney came under new leadership, they just shifted coming out of COVID,” the 53-year-old explains. “COVID shifted our business in a lot of ways. I think they looked at that property and thought, we did it once, not sure if we should revisit it again. Despite whether or not our chemistry was great.”
Blunt adds that “they did not want to set sail again, and that’s fine.”
Current Disney CEO Bob Iger was previously with the company from 2005-2020, with gestation on the Jungle Cruise film version involving Johnson reportedly beginning in 2015. Bob Chapek briefly took over from 2020-2022, with Iger eventually returning to the CEO role, which he still holds today.
Representatives at Disney did not respond to EW’s request for comment.
Directed by Non-Stop and The Shallows helmer Jaume Collet-Serra, Jungle Cruise drew inspiration from Walt Disney‘s beloved Jungle Cruise boat attraction that first opened in July 1955 at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. with elements based on the classic 1951 Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn film The African Queen.
Frank Masi/Disney
Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in Disney’s ‘Jungle Cruise’ movie
The ride welcomes guests for a journey through the jungle aboard boats driven by “skippers,” who make comedic jokes and wise-cracking puns as they take riders past scenes that include hungry piranhas, bathing elephants, and the famous “backside of water” sequence that sees the boats pass behind a waterfall.
Before the release of Jungle Cruise in 2021, Disney opened many subsequent iterations of the Jungle Cruise ride at its parks around the world, including in 1971 at Disney World‘s Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland in 1983, and Hong Kong Disneyland in 2005.
The plot of the film somewhat mirrored that of the ride, with Johnson starring as Frank Wolff, a skipper hired by McGregor Houghton (Jack Whitehall) and botanist Dr. Lily Houghton (Blunt) to take them deep into the heart of the Amazon in search of the Tears of the Moon, a tree with magic healing powers.
The film received general critical praise, and earned a healthy (given the state of the global theatrical market at the time) global haul of just under $221 million at the box office.
Check out more from EW’s The Awardist, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year’s best in TV, movies, and more.
Since then, John and Blunt re-teamed for The Smashing Machine, a biographical drama directed by Benny Safdie based on the life of MMA fighter Mark Kerr.
Listen to Smashing Machine stars Johnson and Blunt talk about Jungle Cruise in the Awardist podcast episode above.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
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