| “ | Another petty insult from that slow-minded fool. He sees a city where I see an empire. Once that lamp sits in my hand, then I shall sit on his throne. | „ |
| ~ Jafar commenting over his goal to overthrow the Sultan and take over Agrabah. |
Jafar is the main antagonist of the 2019 musical fantasy film Aladdin, the live-action remake of the 1992 animated feature film of the same name.
He is the power-hungry Grand Vizier of Agrabah who plots to become Sultan and destroy the nearby kingdom of Shirabad by acquiring the lamp containing the Genie. He is also based off his original incarnation with the same name.
He was portrayed by Marwan Kenzari, who also played Ahk-Ton and Sabbac in Black Adam.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- In the past, Jafar was once a thief, but only he thought bigger. Until he became the grand vizier of the Sultan.
- He wanted to conquer all of Shirabad.
- As opposed to the original where Gazeem willingly entered the Cave of Wonders and Jafar was horrified at his death, here Jafar forces prisoners to the Cave of Wonders to retrieve the Genie’s lamp against their will, resulting in at least one of them getting killed and showing no remorse about this.
- He's far more murderous than his animated counterpart, which is best shown when he mentions "the bodies he's buried" to get the power he has, then proceeds to kill a jailer by knocking him down a well just for saying that he's already the second most powerful person in Agrabah next to the Sultan.
- He left Aladdin to die in the crumbling Cave of Wonders as soon as he got the lamp from him, even going as far as stepping on his hand so he’ll fall.
- He hypocritically treated Aladdin as disposable despite their similar backgrounds.
- He tested whether or not Aladdin had the lamp by having him thrown into the sea to drown, knowing if he didn't have the lamp, it would result in his death. (Although there were arguably better ways to do so). Unlike his animated counterpart who had Razoul and his gang do the gig, this Jafar does it all on his own, making the act even worse.
- After usurping the throne and becoming a powerful sorcerer, he banished Aladdin to a frozen wasteland to freeze to death and painfully tortured the Sultan and Dalia to force Princess Jasmine to marry him simply to spite the Sultan by taking what he cares about the most from him.
- He attacked Aladdin and Jasmine with Iago, (whom he transformed into a giant roc-like creature) and a twister, endangering the Agrabah citizens (who were technically his subjects by that point) and destroying the Magic Carpet.
- After becoming first the Sultan and then a sorcerer, he expressed his intent to first send Agrabah's forces to invade Shirabad, and then move on to do the same to other neighboring kingdoms so he can conquer them and build Agrabah into a mighty empire that, in his words, "history cannot ignore".
- After becoming a genie, he tried to destroy Shirabad out of revenge for his poor upbringing, which almost certainly would have resulted in hundreds of deaths, including any of its citizens who are middle-class or as poor as he once was.
- Although he doesn't abuse Iago like his animated counterpart did, the animated Jafar did seem to care about Iago to some degree until the latter redeemed himself. Here, Jafar used him as if he was just his slave instead of a pet and does not display open affection towards him.
- While the original Jafar dragged Iago with him because he instinctively tried to hold on to something, (and probably didn't even realize he had grabbed onto Iago's tail until it was too late) this Jafar intentionally grabbed him and forced him to share a punishment he didn't deserve, possibly out of spite following Iago's uncaring farewell to Jafar.
- Unlike his animated counterpart, this version of Jafar is not comedic at all and is taken completely seriously.
- Though he wouldn't be as heinous as the villains from the TV series, the 2019 movie is from a different universe where they didn't exist. Therefore, he doesn't fail the heinous standards of his universe without any villains that he could compete against.
Trivia[]
- Jafar does manage to qualify unlike his 1992 counterpart, as the extent of the latter's actions are merely attempted homicide, and he comes off as a generic power-hungry sorcerer, while this Jafar wanted to invade and conquer a whole kingdom. Additionally, the former is not taken seriously all the time.
- It is implied that most of Jafar's negative traits and motives stemmed from having to grow up impoverished and bullied by the populace of Shirabad, making him quite similar to his rival Aladdin. However, their similarities differed in how they handled their suffering. Also, his ruthless nature, lack of care for anyone else and bottomless lust for power, to the point that being anything less than the single most powerful being around is unacceptable to him, negates this, not to mention when Jafar tries to wipe out all of Shirabad, that would include the middle-class and poor people like him which he doesn't seem to care about.
- Interestingly, these details were originally intended to be featured in the original film as seen in the deleted scene "Why Me" as well the Broadway musical.
- While not officially confirmed, many fans have theorized that Jafar had something to do with the death of Jasmine's mother, speculating that perhaps she didn't die from natural causes and it was Jafar who arranged her murder, possibly as revenge for his tragic early life and/or to make the Sultan declare war on Shirabad. Taking into account that this incarnation of Jafar is far more evil than the original, this may very well be the case.
- He serves as a foil and even a dark mirror to Aladdin as they came from similar backgrounds. However, while Aladdin is kindhearted and humble towards the fellow Agrabah residents, Jafar grew to hate the kingdom of Shirabad to the point of wanting to conquer it out of spite. If Aladdin hadn't met Genie and Jasmine and learned to embrace their influence, he would have ended up like Jafar.
- Although he had homicidal tendencies, the original Jafar never murdered anyone (he tries to kill Aladdin and Jasmine without succeeding). This Jafar is much more murderous, talking about "the bodies he's buried to get here" before killing a palace jailer by pushing him into a well simply for calling him "second" in power to the Sultan, forcing Jasmine to marry him out of spite rather than lust, and when he's transformed into a Genie, he was about to annihilate Shirabad with his powers. The original had a genuine friendship with Iago and even initially remains friendly towards Iago in the sequel despite Iago betraying him while the new Jafar shows no signs of being genuine friends with Iago and deliberately pulls Iago into the lamp with him without a second thought. This makes this Jafar much more evil than his animated counterpart.
- This version of Jafar is one of the two versions of him that is pure evil, the other being the Fanscription version.
External Links[]
- Jafar (2019) on the Villains Wiki
- Jafar (2019) on the Scrappy Wiki
