More than four years after this first film's release, Dwayne Johnson's Disney franchise has been confirmed dead in the water. Back in 2021, Johnson, alongside his co-star Emily Blunt, debuted their big-screen take on another beloved Disney Parks property in the form of Jungle Cruise. Pitched as the potential follow-up to something like the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Jungle Cruise did not exactly land with thunderous applause, earning a meager 62% on Rotten Tomatoes and $221 million at the global box office.
Despite not being the resounding success that Disney had perhaps hoped for, the movie was reported to get a sequel, with Johnson and Blunt coming back to reprise their roles for another jungle-based adventure. Now, several months after that initial reporting, it seems like Jungle Cruise 2 is taking on water and may not be seaworthy after all.
According to Jungle Cruise star Dwayne Johnson, a potential sequel to the 2021 Disney film is effectively dead. Speaking during a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly's The Awardist podcast, Johnson and Blunt addressed the future of the Jungle Cruise franchise, saying they "don't think" a sequel will see the light of day.
Johnson explained that he believes that, as Disney "came under new leadership" and emerged from the whirlwind that was the global COVID-19 pandemic, the studio was "not sure if [it] should revisit it again:"
"I think when Disney came under new leadership, they just shifted coming out of COVID...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 chimed in as well, adding, "They did not want to set sail again, and that's fine."
Jungle Cruise is now streaming on Disney+. The action-adventure film, based on the oft-adored Disney Parks attraction of the same name, follows the captain of a small river boat (Johnson) as he takes an enterprising scientist (Blunt) on an epic journey through the jungle to discover the secrets of the Tree of Life.
What Happened to Jungle Cruise 2?
In the lead-up to the release, the original Jungle Cruise was branded as the next potential blockbuster play from Disney based on one of its park properties. The studio has had success with this approach in the past, notably with the Pirates of the Caribbean films; however, it has also produced its fair share of misses.
Jungle Cruise now joins the likes of Tomorrowland and Haunted Mansion (which has had two failed iterations at this point) as Disney Parks-themed films that missed their mark and received no follow-up.
The 2021 Dwayne Johnson blockbuster had all the makings of a potential franchise. The stars were there, it was based on a beloved property, and it had the potential to fill the action-adventure void left empty by things like Indiana Jones, National Treasure, and Pirates. However, thanks to various factors, it did not work.
Of course, paramount among these issues was the movie itself. Had the film been received more positively, Disney would have likely pursued a sequel more seriously.
This is also famously a movie that was marred by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Production was completed before the emergence of COVID-19, but its final release was delayed by a whole year due to the worldwide pandemic.
Then, when it was eventually released, it came at a time when movie theaters were still slowly reopening. This resulted in a stymied box office total, and thus, no real case to make a sequel.
