Getting My Hopes Up for Jon Favreau’s “Magic Kingdom” Movie Again
A conspiracy theory! A plea!
So, I’ve been doing some sleuthing. And it probably means nothing. It almost definitely means nothing. But I am an optimist, at heart, so it does not take much to get worked up into a storm about something that is very improbable. In fact, I have convinced myself, by this point, that the very idea of this article is now moving into the category of “probable.”
That’s right, Delusional Dave is back on the “Magic Kingdom” movie hype train again! Anyone else feel like being a passenger? No? Just me? Alright, then! Party of one for the hype train, let’s get it going again. It’s been too long!
First, some backstory.
In 2010, my life changed forever when it was announced by Disney and director Jon Favreau (who had previously helmed Elf and Iron Man) that a movie about Disney’s famed Magic Kingdom theme park was in the works. (Favreau said it was true and that he wished Marvel all the best when he was no longer going to direct Iron Man 3. Considering he has shown up in the two most recent Marvel movies, I guess he couldn’t stay away. Maybe he couldn’t stay away from “Magic Kingdom” either?) Described as “Night at the Museum except at Disneyland,” the concept immediately connected with me. As a major theme park and Disney nerd all my life, the idea of seeing a movie about my beloved Magic Kingdom on the big screen? I was already sold, without a poster or a trailer or any sort of hint as to what the story of the movie would be.
Over the next couple of years, we received tidbits here and there from Favreau and Disney. Favreau said he had visited the Disney theme parks and taken a ton of notes for what he would want to see in the movie, describing himself as a major Disneyland enthusiast. Writers like Ron Moore, composers like Michael Giacchino, and producers like Marc Abraham all voiced their connections to the project. Even Pixar popped up as a contributor to the film’s animated elements!
But eventually, this news began to dwindle. And my Google alerts for the words “magic kingdom jon favreau” became much sparser in my inbox. This movie was announced at the same time that a potential Haunted Mansion reboot from Guillermo del Toro and Ryan Gosling, a movie based on It’s a Small World, a Jungle Cruise two-hander with Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, and more were all announced by Disney. They were developing movies about their theme park attractions as rapidly as they are currently announcing live action remakes of beloved animated classics. (Remakes of The Great Mouse Detective, Peter Pan, and Tarzan have all been rumored in recent weeks.)
But then, none of them got made. The long-gestating Tomorrowland film from the combined talents of Brad Bird and George Clooney was released in 2015, but it received an extremely lukewarm reception. When, in the following year, a Disney live action remake from Favreau himself, known as The Jungle Book, came very close to cracking a billion at the box office, I resigned myself to the idea that “Magic Kingdom” was officially dead.
I mean, think about it. Alice in Wonderland made a billion. Maleficent was a box office monster. The Jungle Book came close to the milestone. And, following those hits, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King all reached a billion. Clearly, these live action remakes were much more lucrative than the live action “theme park movie” department was. Yes, the Pirates of the Caribbean films were mega-hits, but everything else had faltered. Tomorrowland’s failure was the nail in the coffin. With Favreau experiencing success with Jungle and deciding to advance his CGI-animal-based talents to The Lion King, he was clearly too busy for “Magic Kingdom.” I had officially given up.
But then, hope came from an unlikely source. The Rock.
In July of 2017, Jaume Collet-Serra was announced as the director of that aforementioned “Jungle Cruise” movie. And over the course of the next year, we began to learn more and more about Jungle Cruise, which is currently slated for a July 24, 2020 release. For example, instead of Hanks and Allen, it was set to star Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. The supporting cast would consist of Jack Whitehall, Edgar Ramirez, Paul Giamatti, and Jesse Plemons.
And it’s a real movie! I mean, I get it. Ever since the botched “Magic Kingdom” production, I have extreme trust issues whenever I see movie reports from The Hollywood Reporter or Variety. I basically don’t believe a movie is real until I actually see a trailer for it. And even then.
But Jungle Cruise is genuinely happening. There’s been footage from the set. Johnson confirmed it all on his Instagram. The movie is coming! For real! A new Disney theme park-based movie is coming!
Of course, now there is a ton riding on the success of this Jungle Cruise movie. Typically, I am of the mindset that I do not need to be rooting for Disney’s financial success, but I am making an exception in this case. I really want Jungle Cruise to succeed because, if it doesn’t, then Disney may get discouraged. They may not make “Magic Kingdom” if Jungle Cruise bombs at the box office. So I want it to be a good movie. But I also want it to be financially viable. So far, its only competition that weekend is an untitled animated movie from Sony, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for now.
But what if I don’t have to hope? What if I don’t have to wait anxiously to see if Jungle Cruise makes enough of a profit to justify more theme park-based movies?
What if “Magic Kingdom” is already going to happen?
And this is where my conspiracy theories and pleas comes into play. Hear me out on this, though.
1. Disney has planted flags on many dates in the future for untitled live action films
The D23 Expo is fast approaching so we’re probably going to learn what a lot of these “untitled projects” are meant to be pretty soon. But, for now, this is Disney’s release schedule for the next few years, not including Fox:
March 6, 2020: Onward (Pixar)
March 27, 2020: Mulan (Live action remake)
May 1, 2020: Black Widow (Marvel)
May 29, 2020: Artemis Fowl (Live action)
June 19, 2020: Soul (Pixar)
July 24, 2020: Jungle Cruise (Theme park)
August 14, 2020: The One and Only Ivan (Live action)
October 9, 2020: Untitled project (Live action)
November 6, 2020: The Eternals (Marvel)
November 25, 2020: Untitled project (Animated)
February 12, 2021: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Marvel)
March 12, 2021: Untitled project (Live action)
May 7, 2021: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Marvel)
May 28, 2021: Cruella (Live action remake)
June 18, 2021: Untitled project (Pixar)
July 9, 2021: Indiana Jones 5 (Lucasfilm)
October 8, 2021: Untitled project (Live action)
November 5, 2021: Thor: Love and Thunder (Marvel)
November 24, 2021: Untitled project (Animated)
December 22, 2021: Untitled project (Live action)
And then from 2022 to 2026, there are three untitled Marvel projects, two untitled Pixar films, one untitled animated project, a slew of Avatar and Star Wars films, and five untitled live action films.
Now, obviously, some of those live action movies are going to be remakes. There are nine untitled live action movies on the horizon and some of them are almost certain to be remakes and, probably, some adaptations of books like Artemis and Ivan, too.
With no news in the trades about Disney acquiring film rights for books, let’s say that one of those live action films is a literary adaptation. That leaves eight live action dates.
As for the live action remakes, there are only three that have been treated with genuine legitimacy by trades like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. Those would be The Little Mermaid (which has also been acknowledged by Disney with the official casting of Halle Bailey as Ariel) and remakes for Lilo and Stitch from Mike Van Waes and The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Josh Gad. Various other remakes are in the works, as well, but these three seem to be past the development stage, at least.
So, let’s say that those three remakes take away live action spots on the release schedule. That still leaves five untitled live action projects. I don’t know enough about release date jockeying to comb through them and see what fits best for a “Magic Kingdom” movie, but one of those could very well be for exactly that project.
2. There can’t be that many more live action remakes from Disney
But, perhaps, more than three of these upcoming slots will be allotted to live action remakes. In the development stage are remakes of Pinocchio and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. (The Sword in the Stone is also being remade from a Bryan Cogman script, but that will be a Disney+ release.)
In the rumors stage are Tarzan, Bambi, Peter Pan, The Great Mouse Detective, and Hercules. So now, let’s take into consideration the already-released remakes, the gestating films listed above, the vignette-esque movies that could never serve the remake purpose, and animated films released in the past fifteen years. That would mean, of the fifty-seven animated features in Disney’s history, only thirteen of those would actually still be eligible for the remake treatment. And one of those is Pocahontas! That probably wouldn’t go well!
The Disney live action remake franchise is a finite resource that is still twenty years out from being able to capitalize on Frozen, so long as an animated trilogy isn’t in the works. Something has to buoy this live action facet of Disney’s film productions going forward. And it can’t be the remakes forever. Why not movies based on Disney theme parks? And why not build to a “Magic Kingdom” movie as if it is The Avengers and Pirates, Jungle, Mansion, and more could be the Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America type building blocks of that universe?
3. Surely, Jon Favreau will be moving on from Disney’s live action remake machine
Of course, Favreau is a big wrinkle here, as lot of “Magic Kingdom” and its news seems to have rested, in the past, on Favreau’s interest in the project.
After The Jungle Book, it was clear that Disney wanted to work towards taking the technology to the next level for The Lion King. And they did, with Favreau sticking through that process all the way. Now, it makes sense for Jungle Book to be a stepping stone for The Lion King, at least from a business standpoint. But where do you go from The Lion King, which is a remake of Disney’s most lucrative and, arguably, best animated feature? You don’t just go into The Fox and the Hound or Bambi from there. The Lion King is where you top out from that side of your career.
I can definitely see Favreau being all set with live action remakes after wrapping up The Lion King, but there is one potential problem that could wrench its way into that idea. Favreau was announced to be doing a live action sequel to 2016’s The Jungle Book. He put that project on the shelf to do The Lion King, but it could just as easily come back and be Favreau’s next project.
4. Jon Favreau is also slated to become a Disney Legend at the upcoming D23 Expo this weekend
The D23 Expo is this weekend! Part of the tradition at the Expo is the Disney Legends Ceremony. This year, the ceremony will be held on Friday at 10:30 in the morning and Favreau is among the people being inducted as a Disney Legend. So, he will be in town for the convention. (It’s also a big honor. Kudos to him!)
The next day, Disney will hold its major films panel event in Hall D23. Presumably, they will be announcing a number of their untitled projects, including the live action ones. How amazing would it be to see Favreau come out on stage and announce that, after seven long years, “Magic Kingdom is finally coming next with an official release date?
This is obviously a lot of wishful thinking and Favreau could just as well come out on stage and announce he is hard at work on that Jungle Book sequel I mentioned. Or, Favreau may not even come out at all. This is all speculative, but, at the very least, we know he will be in Anaheim that weekend.
5. Night at the Museum is being rebooted for Disney+
Lastly, this bit of news could definitely be an argument against the potential for a “Magic Kingdom” movie. D23’s Disney+ panel is being held on Friday and their feature films panel is on Saturday so this news is counter-intuitive, but it is still enough to inspire hope.
Two weeks ago, during an earning call, Bob Iger announced that Disney was planning to reboot a number of Fox properties for the Disney+ streaming service, including Home Alone, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Cheaper by the Dozen, and Night at the Museum.
Naturally, Museum’s reboot could just be a straight reboot of the movie, in the sense that museum exhibits come to life for an unsuspecting security guard. But what if Iger was being coy and that property was being rebooted in the form of the “Magic Kingdom” movie it was compared to all those years ago? Obviously, a Disney+ release for “Magic Kingdom” would negate the previous points in the argument, but hey, I would take an eight-episode miniseries or a Disney+ original film or a half hour special, even, at this point.
Many people on Twitter seemed to be thinking along the same lines as me when this news was announced.
Obviously, that’s just one tweet with very minimal engagement. (Disney would never care.) But if you search Twitter for “magic kingdom favreau,” then you are going to find a ton of tweets about it, even in recent months when it’s been years since the last update on the film. Tons of Disney nerds and film fans are clearly still interested in the project.
And I definitely count myself among them. In all honesty, I’m probably getting my hopes up for nothing. But I couldn’t help my conspiracy theorist persona either. Because, you know, what if it’s not nothing? What if this is real? What if it’s finally happening? In a world that will probably be underwater in thirty years, why can’t we find something to hope for?
It’s been nine years and I still find the capacity for hope.
