Summer’s successful Disney Channel Original Movie, Descendants, is getting a sequel.
In the family-friendly flick, the progeny of Disney’s biggest baddies were chosen to attend prep school alongside the offspring of Disney heroes. And at the film’s end, a glint in Mal’s eye foreshadowed this morning’s announcement that a sequel is in the works.
It should come as no surprise — Descendants is cable television’s fifth highest-rated movie of all-time with over 12.2 million viewers tuning in to the musical’s July 31 premiere.
The film starred Dove Cameron as Mal, Cameron Boyce as Carlos, Booboo Stewart as Jay, Sofia Carson as Evie and Mitchell Hope as Ben. The film’s adult roles were brilliantly played by TV, film and Broadway veterans including Tony Award-winner Kristin Chenoweth as Maleficent, Wendy Raquel Robinson as Cruella de Vil, Maz Jobrani as Jafar, Kathy Najimy as the Evil Queen and Melanie Paxson as Fairy Godmother. Brenna D’Amico, Sarah Jeffery, Zachary Gibson, Jedidiah Goodacre, and Dianne Doan also appeared. The movie was directed, choreographed and executive-produced by Kenny Ortega (High School Musical), and executive-produced by Wendy Japhet (An Education, The Italian Job).
To celebrate the sequel’s announcement, on Saturday, October 17, the stars of Disney’s Descendants including Dove Cameron (Disney Channel’s Liv and Maddie), Cameron Boyce (Disney XD’s Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything, Disney Channel’s Jessie), Booboo Stewart (X-Men Days of Future Past) and Sofia Carson, and Kenny Ortega will celebrate with fans during an on-stage, music and dance-filled event at Downtown Disney District, Disneyland Resort, in Anaheim, California.
Image credit: Disney Channel/Matt Petit
Descendant’s screenwriters Sara Parriott and Josann McGibbon have been commissioned to pen the second script and the duo will also serve as executive producers on the project, Descendants 2 (working title).
Other Descendants-related news:
- In the U.S., Disney Channel has presented six of the Top 7 original cable movies ever (High School Musical 2, Teen Beach Movie, Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, Descendants, Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension and Camp Rock).
- The Descendants soundtrack entered the Billboard 200 at #1 and six music videos of its musical numbers plus its end-credit song “Believe” by Shawn Mendes and a “Rotten to the Core” remix by Sofia Carson, have delivered over 254 million views on DisneyMusicVevo.
- The animated short-form series, Descendants: Wicked World, set in the Auradon and Isle of the Lost worlds, currently airs on Disney Channel, WATCH Disney Channel and YouTube.
- Melissa de la Cruz will write a second novel as part of the ongoing Descendants publishing program. Return to the Isle of the Lost will publish in May 2016. (The prequel novel, The Isle of the Lost: A Descendants Novel by Melissa de la Cruz, hit #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List (Children’s Middle Grade) for 13 of the past 22 weeks on the list.)