It's time to see what Maleficent can do with her wings back.
On Monday, Disney reported Angelina Jolie will return to the role in Maleficent 2, although a release date has not been set. Screenwriter Linda Woolverton, who penned the script the first Maleficent will be back to write the sequel.
The announcement was a surprise, given Jolie's hesitation in 2014. "I don't know," she told USA TODAY when questions of a sequel arose. "I enjoyed it. I just feel like we did this one thoroughly and I don't think there'd be another."
She added: "I feel like this is the one, if I was going to ever do a Disney one, this is the one I wanted to do. And I think we've done it well."
Jolie was recently abroad directing the Netflix movie, First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers, based on the memoir from Cambodian author and human rights activist Loung Ung about surviving the deadly Khmer Rouge regime.
She and husband Brad Pitt are currently in London with their six children while Pitt shoots the upcoming WWII drama, Allied. The first Maleficent film shot outside of London at Pinewood Studios.
The live-action business has been booming for Disney, with the Mouse House diving into its archives to successfully reboot classics like The Jungle Book, which has made a whopping $192 million at the box office in just the past two weekends, last year's Cinderella (the Cate Blanchett-led film earned $201 million) and the upcoming Beauty and the Beast (starring Emma Watson, due March 2017). The Johnny Depp-led sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass hits theaters May 27.
Disney also released information about several more upcoming live action films, including:
- Cruella with Emma Stone in the title role.
- Dumbo with director Tim Burton attached.
- A Mary Poppins sequel starring Emily Blunt and Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda.
- The Jungle Book 2 with director Jon Favreau returning.
- And a Tinker Bell project with Reese Witherspoon set to star.
