Jafar (2019)


 *  NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Jafar from the 2019 movie. The mainstream version can be found here: Jafar (Disney). 

"I can make you rich... rich enough to impress a princess."

- Jafar to Aladdin.

Jafar is the main antagonist to the 2019 live-action remake of Aladdin. He is the power-hungry Grand Vizier who intends to take over Agrabah and destroy a nearby kingdom called Sherebad at all costs.

He was portrayed by Marwan Kenzari.

Biography
Jafar first appeared in the desert with his pet Iago as they lured an unwitting man they hired to enter the Cave of Wonders, but the Cave rejects the man by burying him in the sand as it finds him to be unworthy, much to Jafar's anger. The Cave then tells Jafar that only the 'diamond in the rough' is worthy enough to enter.

Back in the palace of Agrabah, Jafar gets the palace guards (led by Hakim) to examine the prisoners to find the 'Diamond in the Rough', but upon none of them proving to be of described. The jailer asks Jafar why he must go so far and reminds him as since he was not born royalty, he cannot be beyond second best. This enrages Jafar so much that he rants of how he made it to his position as Grand Vizier before knocking the jailer down an empty well to his death.

After Princess Jasmine's rejection of Prince Anders, he tried to convince the Sultan to wage war on the nearby kingdom of Sherebad by using his snake staff to hypnotize him, but is forced to back down when Princess Jasmine arrived to the scene as it turns out that her mother was born in Sherebad and was murdered there when Jasmine was young. This resulted an annoyed Sultan to tell Jafar to stay in his place as he already entered a peace treaty with Sherebad, much to Jafar's dismay.

The following night, Jafar and Iago catch Aladdin breaking into the palace trying to return Jasmine's necklace and deduce he is the 'diamond in the rough'. Following this, he alerts the guards to arrest Aladdin. However, rather than locking Aladdin in the dungeon, Jafar instead takes him to the desert, where he appeals to the boy's nature by explaining that he was once a street rat living in the streets of Sherebad and that he spent 5 years in prison there. Jafar offers to help Aladdin out by offering him a deal: Aladdin must go to the Cave of Wonders to fetch a magical lamp for Jafar and he will receive riches to impress Jasmine in return. Finding this to be fair, Aladdin accepts the deal.

Though Aladdin was able to enter the Cave of Wonders and obtain the lamp, things went out of hand when Aladdin's pet monkey Abu touched a ruby, which angered the Cave so much (as it told the occupants not to touch any forbidden treasure). With the help from a magic carpet, Aladdin and Abu managed to escape and deliver the lamp to Jafar. However, rather than helping them out, Jafar instead betrays Aladdin by pushing him, Abu and the carpet back into the Cave before it collapses. Though Jafar is delighted to see that he has finally obtained the lamp, he is shocked to realize that the lamp is gone again as Abu previously took it, leaving Jafar to scream in fury.

Aladdin soon learns that the lamp contains a magical Genie, who is tasked to grant anyone three wishes (with the exception of murder, romance, resurrection, and wishing for more wishes). After tricking the Genie into helping them escape the cave, Aladdin used his first wish to become a prince named Ali in order to impress Jasmine. Upon meeting 'Prince Ali' in person, Jafar immediately finds him to be suspicious, but plays along in order to control him via hypnosis. Upon this failing, he orders both Iago and Hakim to keep an eye on him.

After taking Jasmine on a magic carpet ride, Aladdin is captured by Jafar, who deduced his true identity thanks to a spying Iago. As such, he demanded for the lamp, but when Aladdin refused to tell, Jafar has him thrown into the sea in hopes of seeing if he'd use the lamp to survive. After he turns away however, Abu and the carpet arrived to the rescue by throwing the lamp into the sea. Catching the lamp, Aladdin used his second wish to have Genie rescue him before he would drown.

Aladdin then conspired with Genie and Jasmine to expose Jafar's plot to the Sultan. When Jafar lies that Ali was going to invade Agrabah in order to install war, Jasmine exposes his lie and Jafar resorts to hypnotizing the Sultan. However, Aladdin destroys Jafar's magical staff, successfully proving his treachery to the Sultan. With that in mind, the Sultan angrily orders for Jafar to be placed in the dungeon for his treason.

Despite this setback, Iago managed to obtain the dungeon keys to free Jafar from prison, and using his own street smarts, Jafar managed to obtain the lamp, becoming the Genie's new master. Returning back to the palace, Jafar summons a depressed Genie and uses his first wish to become the new Sultan of Agrabah. Initially he ordered Hakin and the palace guards to arrest the real Sultan and Jasmine, but the latter appeals to Hakim's better nature. Upon Hakim ordering the guards to detain Jafar for his treason, Jafar used his second wish to become the world's most powerful sorcerer, locking up all the guards, as well as Hakim and Rajah, in the dungeons. He then exposed Aladdin of his true identity before exiling him and Abu to a frozen wasteland. With both the Genie and all of Agrabah finally under his control, Jafar coerces Jasmine into marrying him by threatening to kill her father and her handmaiden Dalia.

However, the Genie has the magic carpet to rescue Aladdin and Abu and bring them back. During the wedding ceremony, Jasmine spotted Aladdin and Abu returning, so she steals the lamp from Jafar and gives it back to Aladdin. An annoyed Jafar uses his new staff to transform Iago into a giant roc to pursue the heroes, but the Sultan pushes the staff out of Jafar's hands, turning Iago back to normal. Running out of patience, Jafar uses his magic to overpower the heroes with a sand tornado, even destroying the magic carpet before imprisoning Jasmine and boasting his power to a defeated Aladdin.

However, Aladdin points out that the Genie has more power since he was the one who gave Jafar his power in the first place, and that Jafar will be 'second-best' to him. Furious and realizing that Aladdin has a point, Jafar uses his third and last wish to become the most powerful being in the universe. Due to the grey area in that wish, Jafar becomes an all-powerful genie himself, much to his delight. Satisfied that he is now second-best to no one anymore, Jafar proudly declares that he will use his new power to destroy Sherebad in revenge for his poor upbringing, but Aladdin and Genie pointed out that his third wish just cost him his freedom as genies are not free entities, and that he will be bound to his own lamp until he gets a master to release him. Realizing this too late as he is being sucked into his own lamp, Jafar angrily vows to get revenge on Aladdin once he gets released one day; he even takes Iago with him when the latter tried to flee away from the scene.

With Jafar and Iago finally defeated, the Genie takes the opportunity to banish them by flicking their lamp into the Cave of Wonders so they can spend a thousand years of imprisonment there, much to their distraught.

Personality
Throughout the entire film, Jafar maintains his cunning and manipulative personality as witnessed through his interactions with the Sultan and Aladdin. Compared to his animated counterpart however, he is portrayed as "an angry man" who is far more serious and an intense war hawk. He also serves as a foil and even a dark mirror to Aladdin as they came from the same background, only Jafar was who Aladdin would've eventually become if not for the influence of both Genie and Jasmine.

Having grown as a street rat in Sherabad and eventually a prisoner for 5 years, he has yearned for nothing more than the destruction of the kingdom that once oppressed him and will do anything to achieve his revenge against those who wronged him. He has no qualms killing others for his ambitions or for being called "second best" (as he knocked a palace jailer down an empty well). Over time, his desire for a better life became blind ambition for more power leading to him unable to accept being underneath others so much when enraged he behaves rashly. This almost gets him in trouble with the Sultan, who orders him to "know his place" and leads him to imprisonment after Aladdin provokes his fury into becoming a genie.

His relationship with the Sultan slightly differs. While he maintains his resentment to the Sultan for his passive ways of ruling and alliance with Shirabad, the Sultan is willing to argue with Jafar for the sake of peace for Agrabah. When he becomes Sultan and a sorcerer, he wants the Sultan to suffer for constantly berating his status as beneath him.

In contrast to his animated counterpart's lust for Jasmine, Jafar despises her likely because her mother is from Sherabad and because of her potential as Sultana. He also initially did not intend to marry her in hopes he could manipulate (most likely hypnotize as he tried with Aladdin) her suitor to prepare an army for invasion. To discourage her from entering the path, he attempts to encourage to remain silent and unheard but this backfires at the climax to the point where she turns the palace guards on him. His hatred of Jasmine extends to him wanting her to suffer for being unable to control her through marrying her worst enemy.

Intelligence
As a former street rat, Jafar survived on his wits and cunning for years until he became the Grand Vizier of Agrabah. He is a master tactician and strategist as he can read one's character and use it to his advantage as demonstrated with the wise and pacifist sultan and the noble thief Aladdin. He also has good common sense and remarkable insight as he knew something was wrong about Prince Ali and was the second to realize he was an impostor through the maps and realized the only way Aladdin could survive his cave-in was through the lamp (which he realized Abu stole) and as such he used it to become a prince. What's more, using his own background, he recruited Aladdin through using his own origins to empathize his place. Even without his magic, Jafar proved to be very adaptable upon his escape as he used his street smarts to steal the lamp from Aladdin.

Hypnotism/Sorcery
Through his snake staff, Jafar can hypnotize people to unconsciously do his bidding, but this only works if the user focuses on the red eyes of his staff. If the victim is interrupted, the pawn can revert to their consciousness. In his study, it is also implied Jafar has studied forms of sorcery prior to his possession of the lamp such as astrology, alchemy and spell books.

Upon gaining possession of the lamp and his second wish to become the most powerful sorcerer there is, he gains a variety of new powers and is capable of telekinesis, transformation, immobilization and conjuring through his new staff. But he is still limited to certain powers because he must primarily rely on his staff to perform spells on other animated beings.

Phenomenal Cosmic Powers
Upon his final wish to become the "most powerful being in the universe" but into a genie, he initially had the power to conjure energy into a destructive projectile until he is shackled to his new lamp.

Trivia

 * It's implied that most of Jafar's negative traits and motives stemmed from having to grow up impoverished and bullied on by the populace of Sherebad, making him almost similar to his rival Aladdin, however their similarities differed in how they handled their suffering.
 * This portrayal of Jafar is one of the most criticized aspects from the 2019 live-action remake of Aladdin, which received mixed reviews, mostly due to his lack of emotion and musical numbers in comparison to his original version in 1992, and the fact that he never transforms into a giant cobra to fight Aladdin like he did in the original. In addition, it was also criticized for a lack of menacing voice and charisma.