Cruella holds the distinct honour of being the first movie to have had a red carpet premiere since the COVID-19 pandemic began. However, with the virus still causing chaos across the globe, the live-action Disney prequel ended up debuting in theaters - and on the Disney+'s "Premier Access" service - simultaneously.
Despite the odds being stacked against it, Cruella earned a respectable $233.5 million worldwide and received largely positive reviews.
A largely self-contained story, the movie didn't exactly paint Cruella de Vil as the classic villain we all know from animation (instead, she was a surprisingly likeable anti-hero with questionable morals). When news of a possible sequel broke, though, the prevailing theory was that it might follow her descent into evil.
It's been a while since we've heard anything about the project and Cruella herself, Emma Stone, recently shared what she knows about the movie.
"You tell me. Hopefully, hopefully sooner rather than later," she recently said at the Poor Things premiere. "There’s a work in progress kind of thing going on [with the script]. We’ll see. She’s a blast, she’s the best. We’ll see, it’s a work in progress."
That's neither a bad update nor a particularly promising one. Stone remains busy and, given the uncertainty surrounding Disney sequels and the studio's recent financial woes (not to mention how divisive these remakes often are), we wouldn't be shocked to see Cruella remain a one-off.
In our review, we concluded by saying, "The biggest surprise of 2021, Cruella is a bold, striking, and visually stunning delight featuring a fierce, transformative performance from Emma Stone that sees her make Cruella de Vil entirely her own. A must-see."
Check out Stone's comments in full in the X post below.
Emma Stone (La La Land) stars in Disney’s Cruella, a live-action feature film about the rebellious early days of one of cinema’s most notorious – and notoriously fashionable – villains, the legendary Cruella de Vil. Set during the 1970s punk rock revolution in London, the story follows a clever and creative young grifter named Estella, who is determined to become a successful designer.
After Estella befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, the three build a life for themselves on the London streets. Before long, Estella’s flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman, a devastatingly chic and terrifyingly haute fashion legend, played by Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility). But their relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the raucous, fashionable and revenge-bent Cruella.