Descendants 2, the sequel to Disney Channel’s hit 2015 musical fantasy original movie about the teenage children of classic Disney villains, will premiere Friday, July 21 at 8 PM simultaneously on Disney Channel, ABC, Disney XD, Freeform and Lifetime.
The multi-network premiere continues Disney|ABC TV Group’s efforts to reach a wider audience for its programming and follows the announcement of this fall’s Imax debut of the first two episodes of ABC’s Marvel’s Inhumans ahead of its premiere on the broadcast network.
In Descendants 2, the Villain Kids (AKA “VKs”) — Mal, Evie, Carlos and Jay — continue to try to find their place in idyllic Auradon. When the pressure to be royal becomes too much for Mal, she returns to her rotten roots on the Isle of the Lost where her archenemy Uma, the daughter of Ursula, has taken her spot as self-proclaimed queen of the run-down town. Uma, still resentful over not being selected by Ben to go to Auradon Prep with the other Villain Kids, stirs her pirate gang including Captain Hook’s son Harry and Gaston’s son Gil, to break the barrier between the Isle of the Lost and Auradon, and unleash all the villains imprisoned on the Isle, once and for all.
Dove Cameron, Cameron Boyce, Sofia Carson, Booboo Stewart and Mitchell Hope will reprise the roles of Mal, Carlos, Jay, Evie and King Ben, respectively. Starring as the new villains are China Anne McClain (A.N.T. Farm) as Uma, Thomas Doherty (The Lodge) as Harry, Dylan Playfair (Some Assembly Required) as Gil, son of Gaston and Anna Cathcart (Odd Squad) as Dizzy, daughter of Cinderella’s evil stepsister Drizella and granddaughter of wicked stepmother Lady Tremaine. Also reprising their roles in this sequel are: Brenna D’Amico as Jane, the daughter of Fairy Godmother; Melanie Paxson as Fairy Godmother; Dianne Doan as Lonnie, the daughter of Mulan; Jedidiah Goodacre as Chad, the son of Cinderella; Zachary Gibson as Doug, the son of Dopey; Keegan Connor Tracy as Belle and Dan Payne as Beast.
Emmy-winning director Kenny Ortega (Descendants, High School Musical) is the director, executive producer and choreographer of Descendants 2. Descendants executive producer Wendy Japhet also serves as executive producer for the sequel. Sara Parriott and Josann McGibbon, who won a 2016 Writers Guild Award for Descendants, wrote Descendants 2 and also serve as executive producers.
Descendants was the No. 1 cable television movie of 2015 and the fifth-highest-rated cable film of all time among total U.S. viewers.
