Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt team up for an adventure in the new trailer and poster for Disney's Jungle Cruise. Save for Pirates of the Caribbean, the Mouse House has yet to spawn a successful movie franchise based on one of its popular theme park rides (though not for lack of trying). They're hoping to change that with Jungle Cruise by joining forces with Johnson and Blunt, both of whom have anchored hits for Disney in the past (see: Moana and Mary Poppins Returns). The pair are accompanied behind the camera by Non-Stop and The Shallows director Jaume Collet-Serra, who's already planning a reunion with Johnson on next year's Black Adam film.

Set in the early 20th century, Jungle Cruise follow Frank (Johnson) and Lily Houghton (Blunt), a riverboat captain and scientist who journey together to find a mystical tree with healing powers located deep in the Amazon. In addition to teasing the dangers (including, supernatural beings) they encounter along the way, the first Jungle Cruise trailer provided a glimpse at the characters' odd couple dynamic - something Johnson and Blunt have further played up in their marketing for the film. Now, Disney is pulling the curtain back on the movie a little further.

The second trailer for Jungle Cruise dropped online this morning, ahead of its premiere in theaters with Mulan later this month. You can check it out below, followed by the latest poster.


Much like the previous trailer, the latest Jungle Cruise preview gives off strong Pirates of the Caribbean vibes, right down to featuring a cursed supernatural villain who looks a bit like Davy Jones (albeit, he's made of vines and snakes instead of tentacles). There's also a good deal of humor in the mix here, which is very much on-brand for both a Disney tentpole and a Dwayne Johnson vehicle. Whereas the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels have arguably gotten bogged down in the franchise's increasingly convoluted mythology, it appears Jungle Cruise is keeping things simple, with writers Michael Green (The Call of the Wild) and Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Focus) relying on an Indiana Jones-style MacGuffin to drive the action. Instead, Blunt and Johnson's comedic chemistry is the bigger selling point here, in combination with Collet-Serra's dynamic sense of visual storytelling.

On paper, Jungle Cruise has all the makings of an enjoyable crowd-pleaser and box office hit, and so far the trailers suggest the film will more or less deliver on what it's been promising. If there is one point of concern, it's that the movie's marketing appears to be going out of its way to hide Jack Whitehall. The actor and comedian is costarring in Jungle Cruise as Lily's younger brother McGregor, a character who attracted controversy in 2018 when a report described him as being a stereotypical representation of a gay man. And while that may or may not be the case in the actual movie, the fact the Jungle Cruise trailers have avoided highlighting McGregor at all is certainly not encouraging.

Jungle Cruise (2020)
Release Date: Jul 24, 2020