Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt may have generated precisely zero romantic chemistry in Disney’s Jungle Cruise, but the two nonetheless sparked off each other brilliantly in this summer’s theme park adaptation. Perhaps the sequel should drop the love interest angle altogether, because Frank Wolff and Lily Houghton are much better suited to a straightforward odd couple adventure.
The two A-list stars evidently get on like a house on fire, regularly cracking up on the press circuit as they mercilessly ribbed each other at every turn, with the Mouse House even reaching out to politely ask the stars to stop mentioning anal beads as they promoted a family-friendly blockbuster designed to appeal to all ages.
A sequel was officially entered into active development a little over a month after Jungle Cruise hit theaters and Disney Plus Premier Access, with producer Hiram Garcia revealing to Variety at the Red Notice premiere that the leads have already come up with some brilliant ideas of where things could head.
“We’re in development on it right now, we’re cracking the story on it. We like to keep Jaume very busy, so he’s in post on Black Adam but he’s dabbling a little bit in the Jungle Cruise stuff, we’re currently pushing that along. And it’s so much fun because DJ and Emily are so involved in it, and really have such brilliant ideas about how they want to see their characters go. So we’re hard at work on it, we’re working on the story. And believe me, all I can say is that it’s a big priority for us and a big priority for Disney to get that out, so we’re working on it and it’s moving along.”
Looking at Johnson’s typically jam-packed schedule, it’ll probably be 2023 before the next chapter in the Jungle Cruise franchise can get in front of cameras, which gives the key creatives plenty of time to hammer a suitable screenplay into shape that maximizes the talents of the electric central pairing.