There’s a moment in Disney’s first live-action trailer Cruella film when Emma Stone utters in a terrible fake British accent, “I am a woman, hear me roar.” It looks less like something that Disney fans will remember the iconic 101 Dalmatians villain, Cruella de Vil, and others like Jared Leto’s Joker saying to Batman: “We live in a society”.
All of this to say that Disney may have found its own Joker type character in Stone’s Vil Cruella … but not necessarily in a good way.
Cruella is set in 1970 in London. Stone plays the future villain in a kind of origin story. She is an aspiring punk designer – and a con artist – who is trying to get the richest people in society to pay attention to her and her designs. Throughout the process, she becomes the infamous Cruella de Vil. (If this story sounds somewhat familiar, it may be because it is apparently very similar to Jenny Humphrey’s bow in gossip Girlsecond season of.) The way Stone is playing the villain also has hints from Joker and Harley Quinn, leaning towards the character’s “madness” and adding to the drama of it all.
Now, of course, this is just a trailer, and we all know that movies are not always better represented by their trailers. Cruella it can end up being an incredible film; we’ll just have to wait and see. Disney’s track record with live action movies is relatively successful or unsuccessful, however. The Lion King, Aladdin, and Beautiful and the Beast skyrocketed to over $ 1 billion at the box office, but Dumbo lost to Disney a big chunk of change, and Mulan debuted with lackluster reviews. While Cruella is inspired by 101 dalmatians, it is not a direct adaptation. Disney tried the same formula with Maleficent: while the first film performed well, the follow-up, Maleficent: Lady of Evil, low performance.
Cruella is scheduled to be released on May 28th. It is currently due to be released in theaters, but as Disney CEO Bob Chapek noted in the company’s recent earnings conference call, things can change with your theater roster depending on where the world is with the current pandemic. This means that there is a chance Cruella could end up at Disney Plus instead of in theaters or along with a theatrical release. If that happens, expect more information in the coming weeks.