Murder on the Orient Express actor Marwan Kenzari has entered negotiations to star as the villainous Jafar in Disney’s live-action remake of the 1992 animation classic, Aladdin.
SNL’s Nasim Pedrad has also joined the cast as a handmaid and friend to Jasmine.
Kenzari and Pedrad have joins a cast that includes Will Smith as the genie, alongside Mena Massoud as Aladdin, a riffraff street rat who ends up over his head when he pretends to be a prince in order to win the hand of princess Jasmine, played by Naomi Scott.
The story is set in Agrabah, a fictional cosmopolitan city inspired by locations and cultures from the Middle East to India and China.
Jafar is vizier to the sultan of the city who wants to use the genie for his own nefarious plan of taking power. In the 1992 animated original, the villain was voiced by Jonathan Freeman.
Guy Ritchie is directing the project that has a script by John August. Dan Lin is producing.
Kenzari has also appeared in The Mummy and the Netflix thriller What Happened to Monday.
Source: THR Heat Vision
