Disney's Next 'Descendants' Film Has Announced Its Title
Disney's Next 'Descendants' Film Has Announced Its Title
It was fine to work as 'The Pocketwatch' but now they've got it figured out
The continuation of Disney’s Descendants franchise is rolling along, and now that next step has an official name. On Tuesday, four of the film’s stars, led by Gabby Duran and the Unsittables’s Kylie Cantrall, announced on the franchise’s social media that the title of the next film will be Descendants: The Rise of Red.
Descendants was easily Disney Channel’s defining original movie franchise of the 2010s. Directed by Kenny Ortega and starring Dove Cameron, Sofia Carson, Booboo Stewart and the late Cameron Boyce as the offspring of classic Disney villains from their animated canon, three films were made that were released in 2015, 2017, and 2019, with live action miniseries, shorts, and an animated series along the way. This initial phase culminated in the animated special Descendants: The Royal Wedding, which sees Mal (Cameron) marry Prince Ben (Mitchell Hope).
In the special’s ending, there was a tease for the future down the rabbit hole, with the franchise shifting away from that core. In May 2022, Disney+ greenlit this film under the working title The Pocketwatch. And it being greenlit there makes a lot of sense, as Zombies 3, greenlit as a DCOM, migrated to Disney+ before premiere and did so there first. Prom Pact also exists in a similar gray area, premiering on Disney Channel at the end of this month and then releasing on Disney+ the next day. The Rise of Red stars Cantrall as Red, daughter of the Queen of Hearts. She and Chloe, daughter of Cinderella and Prince Charming, team up, traveling through time using the White Rabbit's pocketwatch and prevent a catastrophic coup on Auradon.
China McClain and Melanie Paxson are set to reprise their roles as Uma and the Fairy Godmother respectively. Dara Reneé plays Ulyana. Other notable names in the cast include Brandy Norwood, playing her Cinderella from the 1997 TV film, singer Rita Ora as the Queen of Hearts, and Ted Lasso’s Jeremy Swift as Principal Merlin of Merlin Academy.