Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is a 2019 American fantasy film directed by Joachim Rønning and written by Linda Woolverton, Micah Fitzerman-Blue, and Noah Harpster. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Roth/Kirschenbaum Films, it is a sequel to Maleficent (2014), itself a live-action adaptation of Disney's 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty, and the second installment in the Maleficent film series. Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, and Lesley Manville reprise their roles from the first film; new cast members include Chiwetel Ejiofor, Harris Dickinson, Ed Skrein, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Set five years after the first film, the film sees Maleficent face the neighboring kingdom's manipulated perception of herself as a villain, in addition to a subplot of the rise of an endangered, powerful fairy race of the Dark Fae.