Shocker: Disney Working on Sequel for ‘Oz: The Great and Powerful’; Sam Raimi Won’t Direct

With Sam Raimi’s Oz: The Great and Powerful set to become the first box office blockbuster of the year with a $80 million opening weekend, it’s hardly surprising that Disney has already started working on a sequel.

THR reports that the studio has commissioned Mitchell Kapner, who co-wrote the first film, to write the script for the sequel. An interesting fact is that Disney is legally forbidden to directly reference anything from the original MGM Wizard of Oz and as a result, a sequel would be an even trickier proposition as James Franco continue to grow into the great wizard of Oz.

Nonetheless, Disney already dropped over $300 million to produce and promote the first film so a franchise was a foregone conclusion. Adding to the intrigue is the question of whether or not Sam Raimi will come back to direct the sequel.

Speaking to Coming Soon, the director seemed pretty categorical about moving on to other projects: “I haven’t planned on directing the sequel. I did leave some loose ends for another director if they want to make the picture… I was attracted to this story but I don’t think the second one would have the thing I would need to get me interested.”

Have you seen the movie? Do you think Raimi should come back to direct the sequel?