With $750M in the bank, Disney's Maleficent is the crown jewel of their live-action retellings. Likely it wouldn't have been the hit it was without the star power of Angelina Jolie as the titular Sleeping Beauty villain, and as Disney embarks on the expected sequel they have every intention of bringing her back. But is she even interested?
Deadline reports that Linda Woolverton has been brought back to write a Maleficent sequel with the expectation that Jolie will return. She isn't signed on for a sequel, though, and has generally been reluctant to star in sequels ever since Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. Another big part of Maleficent's success was production designer-turned-director, Robert Stromberg, and Disney may want to make a move to bring him back, as well.
With Jolie's directorial career taking off she may not have any desire to don the Maleficent horns once again. When USA Today asked her about it last year she seemed ready to move on...
"I don’t know. I enjoyed it. I just feel like we did this one thoroughly and I don’t think there’d be another. 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.”
