Jungle Cruise trailer: Forget Dwayne Johnson – everyone’s talking about Jesse Plemons’ German accent

The ‘Black Mirror’ and ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ actor will play the villainous Prince Joachim

Kevin E G Perry
Los Angeles
Thursday 27 May 2021 14:23 EDT
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With Disney’s upcoming adventure film Jungle Cruise set to hit cinemas and Disney+ at the end of July, a newly released trailer has revealed part of the storyline - and given us our first taste of the over-the-top German accent  Jesse Plemons will be utilising in his role as villain Prince Joachim.

Jungle Cruise, much like the wildly successful Pirates of the Carribean franchise, is based on a Disney theme park ride.

It will star Dwayne Johnson as riverboat captain Frank Wolff and Emily Blunt as Dr Lily Houghton, a scientist who ropes Wolff into her quest to find a tree deep in the jungle that’s said to have magical healing properties.

In the trailer, she also proves she’s a dab hand at kick-starting a river boat engine (clearly she’s been taking advice from Humphrey Bogart in the 1952 classic The African Queen).

Just as Bogart learned all those decades ago, it’s next to impossible to go for a swashbuckling jungle adventure without nefarious Germans trying to sink you.

In this case, that means U-boat captain Prince Joachim, played with obvious gusto by Jesse Plemons.

He appears for only a couple of seconds in the trailer - his submarine rising up out of the water as he hollers a breezy: “Hallöchen!” (Roughly the German equivalent of: “Hey there!”)

Plemons has form when it comes to playing creepy racists - not least Todd Alquist, the neo-nazi gang member that gave him his breakout role in Breaking Bad - but his Prince Joachim seems to be painted with a broader brush, as befits a Disney baddie.

Jungle Cruise is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and also stars Jack Whitehall, Paul Giamatti and Èdgar Ramírez. It will arrive in cinemas and on Disney+ Premier Access on 30 July.

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