Five years later, Cruella 2 refuses to die
Five years on, Disney’s punk-rock prequel still has bite — Craig Gillespie says Cruella 2 is alive and kicking, hinting at movement even as he promotes DC’s Supergirl.
If you ever thought Disney would bail on making a Cruella sequel, think again. Apparently, the punk-rock prequel's not dead yet: director Craig Gillespie has just lobbed a hopeful message about Cruella 2 that should perk up anyone who's been waiting for more of Emma Stone's high-camp villainy.
Cautious optimism from the director
Gillespie's currently off handling Supergirl over at DC, but when asked outright by The Playlist about the Cruella sequel, he didn't dodge it. His words: 'It's possible. That's going to be something else that's on the agenda.' Not exactly a commitment, but it's a sight more reassuring than radio silence, so the sequel is very much in "pending" rather than "pipedream" territory.
Recap: Cruella surprised everyone, including Disney
If you missed Cruella the first time around (released in 2021, when cinemas were taking their first shaky steps out of lockdown), you missed Disney accidentally making a hit. The film ditched their usual remake-by-numbers and went full-on 1970s London, turning Estella's evolution into the fur-mad villain into more of a chaotic fashion war than a straightforward origin story. Emma Stone absolutely went for it, and Jenny Beavan's wild costume design even nabbed an Oscar nomination. Bottom line: $233.5 million global box office on a $100 million budget, in the middle of the 'can anyone leave their house?' era.
So why hasn’t the sequel happened yet?
Blame schedules, not cold feet. Emma Stone publicly said in 2024 she'd come back, and Gillespie's never hinted otherwise. But the pair are both stacked with other projects:
- Stone keeps reuniting with Yorgos Lanthimos for films like Poor Things, The Favourite, and more recently, Bugonia.
- Gillespie is jumping between films, including the aforementioned Supergirl.
Cruella 2 was technically greenlit almost as soon as the first film landed big, but actual progress since then? Basically at a crawl. No plot details have surfaced, though you'd assume they'll carry on following Cruella as she tightens her grip on the fashion underworld, probably descending further into cheerful, animal-print madness.
A wild casting rumour (that leads nowhere)
At one point, social media wound itself up about a rumour that Taylor Swift would sign on to play a villain in the sequel. Entertaining as that would be, there's been nothing official (or even remotely reliable) to back that up.
Where’s everyone now?
Currently, Stone's attached to a new series called The Catch and something Miss Piggy related that's still hush-hush. Gillespie remains flat-out with his own directing diary. Meanwhile, the first Cruella is available to stream if you need a reminder why people care about a sequel at all.