He added, “I wouldn’t have any issue casting Will Smith in anything, because, as I say, he was just the f-ing perfect gentleman. "I never saw anything other than the consummate, generous gentleman.” “I’ve never met a more lovely man, and working with him was one of the most wonderful, great experiences I’ve ever had," Ritchie said. In December, he noted in a THR interview that despite the actor's mishap at the Oscars, Ritchie knows Smith to be a "generous gentleman" whom he'd love to invite back for Aladdin 2. So Disney is keen to stand by him and bring him back into the fold.”ĭirector Guy Ritchie also recently said he wanted to bring back Smith for the sequel. "The first film was a huge success so it would be silly not to make another, and it would be a real shame to have to re-cast Will over what happened. “He has done a lot of work on himself and the consensus is that it will all be very much in the past by the time the movie is released," one unnamed movie insider is quoted as saying in The Sun's report. Apple moved forward with the release of his film Emancipation in December following several public apologies from Smith about the whole situation. However, while Smith has certainly lost some fans over the incident, there doesn't seem to be quite as much heat against him now as there had been in the immediate aftermath. There had been speculation that Smith's casting as the Genie could be affected by the actor's Oscars scandal, which saw him getting banned from the Academy for ten years after slapping and screaming obscenities at Chris Rock on live television last year. If this new information is accurate, it would mark the first casting for Smith since the "Oscars slap" incident happened last year, though there have also been reports that Bad Boys 4 is still planned to happen as well. The report specifically notes that Smith's Genie will play an "even bigger part" in the sequel than in the 2019 movie. The Sun reports that Smith will return as the Genie in Aladdin 2, the sequel that's been slowly inching through its early development stages since the previous film was released in 2019. His scenes with Massoud have a scrappy charge that lift the mood when the plot mechanics get heavy.According to new reports, Will Smith is coming back to Disney. Putting his own spin on Genie’s big song, “Friend Like Me,” Smith is a comic blast. He brings a Fresh Prince sass to the role and wisely never tries to imitate the inimitable Williams. Smith, however is the movie’s best special effect. And Ritchie pulls out all the stops in “Prince Ali,” a circus-like production number. For starters, Aladdin wishes to be a prince worthy of wooing Jasmine. Genie has only three wishes to grant, and you can’t wish for more wishes. Smith plays him human-sized and later as the CG-enhanced marvel that pops out of a lamp when Aladdin gives it a rub. How do these two opposites come together? The Genie, of course. She even gets a new song, “Speechless,” with lyrics from La La Land Oscar winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. She no longer dreams only of love she’d like to succeed her father the sultan (Navid Negahban) and make decisions for her country. You won’t recognize Jasmine from her cartoon origins. Aladdin does have a problem: He yearns for Jasmine, a princess far beyond his pay grade. His “One Jump Ahead” has a swirling energy you won’t find in the musical version currently on Broadway. Massoud, so good on TV’s Jack Ryan, is a live-wire as Aladdin, who swings through the streets of Agrabah like an acrobat while singing the Alan Menken/Howard Ashman-Tim Rice score. That’s mostly a losing battle, but the impulse is solid. But he does give the story a kineticism that helps when you’re trying to match what animation can do. Ritchie, best known for action pulverizers like RocknRolla and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, doesn’t pull out the heavy ammo in this family-friendly, PG enterprise. That the movie itself is a treat, beyond its good intentions, is icing on the cake, though clichés and ethnic stereotyping still sneak in. Following his controversy at this years Oscars, Guy Ritchie has addressed whether Will Smiths Genie will be recast in Aladdin 2. An Arabian nights fantasy filled with brown-skinned actors? Will wonders never cease? Aladdin director Guy Ritchie responds to whether Aladdin 2 will recast Will Smiths Genie, in light of Smiths Oscar slap controversy and backlash. And Marwan Kenzari, as villainous Jafar, is partly Tunisian. Nasim Pedrad, as her handmaiden, Dalia, was born in Iran. Naomi Scott, who plays Princess Jasmine, is of Indian descent. Mena Massoud who plays Aladdin, has roots in Egypt. That’s Will Smith as the Genie, embodying the character Robin Williams brought to hilarious vocal life in 1992 and doing the role proud. It’s an inspired choice to cast Guy Ritchie’s live-action version of Disney’s 1992 animated hit with persons of color. Did Aladdin just get woke? Looks like it.
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