When James Bobin took the director's chair from Tim Burton for the 2016 sequel, the pressure was massive. People usually call it Alice Through the Looking Glass, but for most of us searching for info, it's just the movie with the cast of Alice in Wonderland 2. It had big shoes to fill. The first film cleared a billion dollars at the box office, which is honestly wild when you look back at the mixed reviews. But the second one? It brought back the heavy hitters and added a few chaotic new faces that actually made the sequel more emotionally grounded than the original, even if the critics didn't always agree.
Most people forget how stacked this lineup really was. You aren't just looking at a few A-listers; you’re looking at a collection of actors who, at the time, were defining what "weird" looked like in Hollywood.
The Core Returning Stars Who Anchored the Chaos
Mia Wasikowska came back as Alice Kingsleigh, but she wasn't the same girl who fell down the rabbit hole. By the time we get to this sequel, Alice is a literal sea captain. Mia plays her with this sort of steely, practical grit that contrasts perfectly with the neon-colored insanity of Underland. It’s a performance that feels underrated because she’s the "straight man" to the eccentricities around her.
Then there’s Johnny Depp. Honestly, his take on the Mad Hatter—Tarrant Hightopp—is arguably more central to the plot of the second movie than the first. The whole story revolves around Alice trying to save the Hatter’s family. Depp leans hard into the vulnerability here. It’s less about the "futterwacken" dance and more about a man dying of a broken heart. It’s heavy stuff for a Disney flick.
Helena Bonham Carter returned as Iracebeth, the Red Queen. She’s just brilliant. There is no other way to put it. While the first movie painted her as a screeching villain, the cast of Alice in Wonderland 2 script actually gave her a tragic backstory. We finally learned why her head was so big—literally and figuratively. Watching her interact with Anne Hathaway’s White Queen (Mirana) revealed a sibling rivalry that felt surprisingly real, despite the prosthetic foreheads and magical sparkles.
Hathaway, for her part, plays Mirana with this floaty, almost suspicious perfection. Fans have long debated if the White Queen is actually the "good" one, and this film leans into that ambiguity.
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Sacha Baron Cohen as Time: The Addition We Needed
The biggest shake-up to the roster was Sacha Baron Cohen playing Time. He’s not exactly a "villain" in the traditional sense. He’s more like a cosmic bureaucrat who is tired of everyone's nonsense. Cohen brings this strange, Germanic-sounding authority to the role that manages to be funny and deeply intimidating at the same time.
He lives in a clockwork castle and has a relationship with the Red Queen that is, frankly, bizarre. But it works. His presence shifted the energy of the film away from just "Alice wanders around" to "Alice is in a race against an actual personification of physics."
The Voices You Probably Didn't Recognize
It’s easy to focus on the faces you see on the poster, but the voice cast was a "who’s who" of British acting royalty.
- Alan Rickman voiced Absolem the Butterfly. This was actually his final film role before he passed away, and the movie is dedicated to him. Hearing that distinct, gravelly voice one last time gives the opening and closing of the movie a weight that hits differently now.
- Stephen Fry returned as the Cheshire Cat. He has that effortless, smug charm that only Fry can deliver.
- Michael Sheen was the White Rabbit (Nivens McTwisp). You’d barely know it’s him under the frantic stuttering.
- Timothy Spall voiced Bayard the Bloodhound, providing the moral compass for the CGI creatures.
The depth of the cast of Alice in Wonderland 2 extended even to the smaller roles. Matt Lucas played both Tweedledee and Tweedledum again, using motion capture and a lot of digital wizardry. It’s a thankless job to spend weeks in a green suit, but those characters provide the surrealist backbone the movie needs to feel like Lewis Carroll’s world.
Why the Chemistry Shifted in the Sequel
In the first film, the characters felt like set dressing for Tim Burton’s visual style. In the sequel, the actors had more to chew on. The plot involves time travel (via the "Chronosphere"), which means we see younger versions of the characters. This forced the actors to play with their established personas.
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We see a younger, more "normal" Hatter before the trauma of the Jabberwocky attack. We see the exact moment the Red Queen’s head swelled after hitting a fountain. This required a level of continuity from the actors that made the world feel lived-in. Rhys Ifans joined the group as Zanik Hightopp, the Hatter's father. Ifans is a phenomenal actor (you might know him as Otto Hightower from House of the Dragon), and he brought a stern, traditionalist energy that explained why the Hatter is so deeply insecure.
The Production Reality Behind the Scenes
Making a movie like this is a massive technical undertaking. The actors spent most of their time on "green" sets with very few physical props. This is where the talent of the cast of Alice in Wonderland 2 really shines. Imagine Sacha Baron Cohen having to act opposite a tennis ball on a stick while wearing a giant, heavy costume that represents the literal embodiment of time.
The film didn't do as well as the first one at the box office—not even close. It made about $299 million worldwide. In Hollywood terms, that’s a "flop" when your budget is $170 million plus marketing. But that wasn't on the actors. The release timing was tough, and the "Burton-esque" aesthetic had lost some of its novelty by 2016. However, looking back at the performances, there’s a lot of craft here that gets overshadowed by the CGI.
Understanding the Character Archetypes
If you're trying to figure out who played who or why certain characters felt different, it helps to look at the "purpose" each actor served in this specific story:
- The Emotional Core: Johnny Depp and Rhys Ifans. Their father-son tension is the actual engine of the movie.
- The Moral Compass: Mia Wasikowska. She represents the "modern" woman trapped in a Victorian setting (and a magical one).
- The Comic Relief/Antagonist: Sacha Baron Cohen. He provides the stakes. If he stops, everything stops.
- The Tragic Villain: Helena Bonham Carter. She makes you feel sorry for a woman who tries to behead people.
What You Should Do Next
If you haven't seen the movie in a few years, it’s worth a re-watch just to see Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter play off each other. They have a comedic timing that feels like old-school vaudeville.
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For those interested in the technical side, look for the "making of" featurettes specifically focusing on the costume design by Colleen Atwood. The way the actors move in those outfits—especially Hathaway and Cohen—is a masterclass in physical acting. You can find most of these behind-the-scenes clips on Disney+ or various physical media releases.
Pay attention to the voice acting in the final act. Knowing it was Alan Rickman's final performance changes the subtext of Absolem’s advice to Alice. It’s a poignant farewell from a legendary actor.
Check the credits for the smaller roles too; you'll see names like Andrew Scott (from Sherlock and Fleabag) playing Dr. Addison, the man trying to institutionalize Alice in the "real" world. It’s a tiny role, but it shows just how much talent was packed into every frame of this production.
Take a look at the film's "Chronosphere" sequences to see how the VFX team blended the actors' real faces with their younger, digital counterparts. It was pioneering tech at the time that we now take for granted in most superhero movies.
Finally, compare the Red Queen's behavior in this film to the first. You'll notice Bonham Carter subtlely softened her performance to allow for the "redemption" arc that happens in the final minutes. It’s a clever bit of character work that often gets missed on a first viewing.