Maleficent 3 is in the works, despite Angelina Jolie hinting that she wants to leave acting

(Image credit: Disney)

Maleficent 3 is officially in the works, according to the Wall Street Journal, and Angelina Jolie will be returning as the titular fairy.

The first Maleficent movie was released in 2014 and a sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, followed in 2019. The films serve as a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale from the perspective of the story's villain, who puts a curse on the infant Princess Aurora. A third movie was announced back in September 2021, but this is the first confirmation we've had since that it's still going ahead.

No casting information has been revealed yet beyond Jolie's return, but previous installments featured Sharlto Copley, Juno Temple, Harris Dickinson, Elle Fanning, and Michelle Pfeifer. Robert Stromberg and Joachim Rønning helmed the first two movies, but we don't know who will be in the director's chair for round three just yet.

This news comes off the back of Jolie's hints that she's planning to leave acting. "I wouldn’t be an actress today," she told the Wall Street Journal elsewhere in the interview, going on to say that she plans to eventually leave Los Angeles.

Jolie is currently filming Pablo Larraín's next movie Maria, a biopic of the opera singer Maria Callas written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight. She's also set to reprise her voice role as Master Tigress in Kung-Fu Panda 4, which will be released on March 8, 2024.

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.