It can take so long to make an animated film, it's easy for fans of a franchise to forget there's another one in the works. These are the animated sequels you can expect in the coming years.
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00:00It can take so long to make an animated film, it's easy for fans of a franchise to forget
00:04there's another one in the works.
00:06These are the animated sequels you can expect in the coming years.
00:10The DreamWorks-produced, universal distributed film The Bad Guys hit theaters in 2022, and
00:15it didn't take long for it to spawn a franchise.
00:17The success of the first film, which follows a criminal gang of anthropomorphic animals
00:21as they attempt to leave their shady ways behind, helped usher in two TV specials titled
00:26The Bad Guys A Very Bad Holiday and The Bad Guys Haunted Heist in 2023 and 2024.
00:31In March 2024, DreamWorks revealed that The Bad Guys 2 would arrive on August 1st, 2025.
00:37The film's official logline reads,
00:38"'The Bad Guys 2' follows the crackerjack criminal crew of animal outlaws who are struggling
00:43to find trust and acceptance in their newly-minted lives as good guys.
00:46However, they're pulled out of retirement and forced to do one last job by an all-female
00:51squad of criminals."
00:52Fans of the original will be happy to know the original cast are returning, so the likes
00:56of Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina, and Zazie Beetz are expected to reprise their roles.
01:00"'Webs, you feel like a girl's trip?'
01:03"'Um, yes.'"
01:04In July 2024, news broke that Natasha Lyonne had reportedly joined the sequel, though her
01:09character's details remain unknown.
01:11The first Zootopia film hit theaters in 2016, so it's been a while since Judy Hopps and
01:16Nick Wilde saved the titular city from corruption.
01:18The film was a massive hit, pulling in more than $1 billion at the global box office.
01:23With figures that large, it's hardly surprising that a sequel is coming.
01:26Zootopia 2 was announced by Disney head honcho Bob Iger in 2023, and the first footage from
01:31the film was shared the following year at the company's D23 event.
01:35The clip depicted Judy and Nick in Marsh Market looking for a snake named Gary, with all kinds
01:39of silly imagery, like tattooed hippos and seals being served algae on a plate around
01:43them.
01:44Both Goodwin and Bateman are reprising their roles.
01:47It was also revealed that Academy Award winner Kee Hui Kwan is joining the cast as Gary.
01:51Jared Bush, who co-helmed the first movie, will direct from a script that he wrote himself.
01:55The Mouse House has set a release date of November 26th, 2025.
01:58"'Hang in there.'"
02:00In 1986, writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons got together and created one
02:05of the greatest comic book limited series of all time.
02:08Watchmen is one of those comics that many believed couldn't be adapted, and indeed,
02:12it proved to be very difficult.
02:14The 2009 Watchmen live-action film underperformed, and the HBO TV show from 2019 only lasted
02:20a single season.
02:21However, while live-action hasn't worked out well for Watchmen, animation has been a different
02:25story.
02:26In 2024, Warner Bros. Animation put together an adaptation that's not only true to the
02:30story from the Watchmen comics, but also looks fantastic thanks to its beautifully dynamic
02:34CG animation.
02:35The 80s set film also boasted an all-star cast, with the likes of Matthew Rhys, Katie
02:40Backoff, Titus Welliver, Troy Baker, Adrian Barbeau, and Michael Cerveris.
02:44Seeing as the project was announced as a two-parter, it's almost certain that all these big hitters
02:48will be back for the second installment.
02:50Watchmen Chapter 2 will arrive in 2025, though an exact release date isn't available as of
02:55this video.
02:56What we do know is that Chapter 2 will be based on the latter six issues, as Chapter
03:001 adapted the first half of the 12-issue comic.
03:03The first live-action film adaptation of the classic video game series, Super Mario Bros.,
03:07was a cinematic monstrosity that's renowned for how terrible it was.
03:11It took 30 years for another big-screen Hollywood adaptation to arrive, and fortunately, this
03:16one was animated, which allowed it to hone in on what makes the world of Mario so special.
03:20Oh, thanks.
03:21Yeah, it's kind of my thing.
03:23The Super Mario Bros. movie was a smash hit at the box office, raking in over $1.3 billion
03:28worldwide.
03:29Hollywood doesn't typically pass on sequels when a film brings in that much cash, so a
03:33follow-up is naturally on the way.
03:35Releases of the Super Mario Bros. movie, too, arrived on March 10, 2024, also known
03:39as Mario Day, from Illumination and Nintendo.
03:42While they didn't reveal much about the project other than its existence, they did reveal
03:46that it would be dropping in several territories in April 2026, with the United States set
03:50for an April release.
03:52The upcoming sequel is already generating a lot of chatter, including from the cast.
03:56For example, Bowser voice actor Jack Black told GameSpot he wants Pedro Pascal to voice
04:01Mario, including the famous antagonist, who is basically the anti-Mario, would be an excellent
04:05way to move the franchise forward.
04:07But the direction the sequel will take is anyone's guess at this point.
04:11The Toy Story franchise is the gift that keeps on giving for Disney and Pixar.
04:15The first film was a smash hit, helping to make Pixar one of the leading animation studios,
04:19and the sequels have all gone down just as well.
04:22After Toy Story 3, it seemed like the toy's time was at an end.
04:25But then Toy Story 4 came out of nowhere and blew everyone away.
04:28In the process, it reminded viewers that Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang remain
04:32some of the best characters in the Mouse House roster.
04:34But how can they stay relevant in this day and age?
04:36The answer to that is simple.
04:38Toy Story 5 is going to bring the crew into the digital age.
04:41As co-director Andrew Stanton said at the D23 convention in 2024,
04:45Let's be real.
04:46Toys have some serious competition these days with phones, tablets, and technology everywhere.
04:50This time around, it's toy meets tech.
04:52A teaser image for the upcoming sequel shows the toy gang looking forlorn at the foot of
04:56a child's bed as the child in question sits under a blanket, eyes glued to a tablet.
05:01It's a clever way to continue the successful series, and there's every chance that Toy
05:04Story 5 will smash the box office when it arrives on June 19th, 2026.
05:09Additionally, it's been confirmed that Woody and the gang will also have to deal with a
05:1350-strong army of malfunctioning Buzz Lightyear action figures in this latest installment,
05:17which should make for some hilarious scenes.
05:20While viewers got to return to the world of Shrek with Puss in Boots The Last Wish in 2022,
05:25it's been well over a decade since we had an actual Shrek film.
05:28In July 2024, DreamWorks Animation confirmed that Shrek 5 was finally in development,
05:32posting a brief teaser on X.
05:34Set to All-Star by Smash Mouth, the teaser features an ogre green number 5,
05:38complete with Shrek ears bouncing around below the words,
05:41The All-Star Returns.
05:42This clip alone would have been enough to get fans excited about the new entry in the franchise,
05:46but there was more.
05:47In addition to a confirmed release date of July 1st, 2026,
05:51the X-Post confirmed that Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz would be reprising
05:55the roles of Shrek, Donkey, and Fiona, respectively.
05:58The film will be co-directed by Brad Abelson and Walt Dorn,
06:01both of whom have a great deal of experience in and out of the franchise.
06:04Nothing about the plot has been leaked, so it's anyone's guess as to what will happen in Shrek 5.
06:09Even so, it's almost guaranteed to be a box office hit,
06:12given that the franchise has wide cross-generational appeal.
06:15The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles returned to animation with the beautifully rendered
06:19Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem in 2023,
06:22which performed admirably at the box office and went down a storm with critics.
06:26Given the film's success, it's hardly surprising that a follow-up is on the way.
06:30This was clearly the plan all along, as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem
06:34sets up both a sequel and a TV series at the end.
06:37That series, titled Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
06:39arrived on Paramount Plus in 2024 and has been equally as successful,
06:43so hopes are high heading into the second feature film.
06:46The sequel, which is scheduled to drop on October 9th, 2026,
06:49will see Donnie, Raph, Leo, and Mikey face off against the franchise's most iconic villain,
06:54Shredder.
06:55Speaking to Empire, director Jeff Rowe revealed that Shredder almost appeared in the first film
06:59before they decided to keep him back for the sequel.
07:02Rowe explained,
07:03They saved Joker for the Dark Knight.
07:04The one thing I can say without spoiling anything is,
07:07Shredder needs to be a hundred times scarier than Superfly, who is a credible villain.
07:11He's dangerous, he's strong, he seems like he could mess the turtles up.
07:14Shredder needs to be that, just significantly more.
07:17Awesome, good, love that I'm looking at that.
07:21The Despicable Me franchise has generated over $5.5 billion since it debuted,
07:26and that figure is set to grow with the upcoming Minions 3.
07:29Shortly after Despicable Me 4 brought in the big bucks in 2024,
07:33Illumination and Universal announced that a third film in the Minions spinoff series
07:36was in development, with a projected release date of June 30th, 2027.
07:40That's a long way off, and as such,
07:42there's almost no information about the film's plot,
07:45which characters will return outside of the titular creatures, or anything of substance.
07:49The last Minions movie was 2022's Minions The Rise of Gru,
07:52which is a prequel like its predecessor.
07:54That movie focused on Gru when he was 11,
07:56so it's likely that Minions 3 will continue the prequel trend
07:59by advancing the plot a few years into the future,
08:02possibly with Gru attending the villain school at the Lycée Pabon.
08:05In terms of concrete info,
08:06we know for sure that Minions 3 will be helmed by Pierre Coffin,
08:10the French animator who has voiced the Minions since they first appeared
08:12in Despicable Me back in 2010.
08:15Frozen was one of those movies that comes around once in a generation,
08:18taking the world by storm when it came out in 2013.
08:21Frozen 2 followed in 2019, and it was another big payday for Disney,
08:25pulling in almost $1.5 billion worldwide.
08:28Unsurprisingly, there's more Frozen on the horizon.
08:31In an announcement that surely thrilled shareholders,
08:33Bob Iger revealed that Frozen 3 was in the pipeline
08:36during the company's Q1 earnings call in February 2023.
08:39Iger didn't reveal much information about the sequel at the time,
08:42but we now know that Frozen 3 is set for a November 24, 2027 release.
08:47Frozen 3 concept art hints at Norse mythology,
08:49with a possible Loki appearance in the cards.
08:51Iger clearly expects it to be another big hit,
08:54because he announced on Good Morning America
08:56that there are already plans in place for Frozen 4.
08:59Frozen 3 is in the works,
09:00and there might be a Frozen 4 in the works too.
09:04Iger didn't go into much detail about either film,
09:06but he confirmed Frozen director Jen Lee and her team
09:09were already working on two stories for the Frozen franchise.
09:13The first two Sing movies have generated over $1 billion between them,
09:16so a third entry made sense for Illumination.
09:19So it wasn't a big surprise when the company's CEO,
09:21Chris Meledandri, revealed to Variety that Sing 3 was on the cards in 2023.
09:26He revealed that the third film would feature characters from the previous films, but,
09:29quote,
09:30"...it will take us into a new world."
09:32Meledandri also confirmed that Sing 2 had been a hit on streaming,
09:35which let him know that there was still an appetite for the franchise.
09:38Despite previously indicating that he was done with the series,
09:41Garth Jennings, who wrote and directed Sing and Sing 2,
09:44is listed as the writer-director of Sing 3 on IMDb,
09:47so it could be that he had a change of heart.
09:49The film is due to arrive sometime in the next few years,
09:51though no release date has been specified as of fall 2024.
09:55While Sony's live-action Spider-Verse films haven't done particularly well of late,
09:59it's a different story with its animated Spider-Man movies.
10:02The first and second installments in the Spider-Verse trilogy
10:04have been spectacular,
10:06boasting some of the most beautiful and unique animation in Hollywood history.
10:09The franchise has done stellar business at the box office,
10:12with the first two films earning over a billion dollars between them.
10:15But when can we expect the third film?
10:17Not for a while yet, it would seem.
10:18Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse came out in 2018,
10:21and it took another five years for Across the Spider-Verse to hit theaters.
10:25Given how complex the animation is, this makes sense.
10:27The threequel was initially planned for a March 2024 release,
10:31though that came and went with no new entry.
10:33At this point, Beyond the Spider-Verse likely won't arrive until 2026 or 2027.
10:38While Sony hasn't revealed any plot details,
10:40the way Across the Spider-Verse ended provides some clues.
10:43The third film will probably pick up where the last one finished,
10:45with Miles Morales stuck in an alternate reality
10:48where his other self has chosen a darker path and become the Prowler.
10:52Miles will have to deal with himself, in a manner of speaking,
10:54while the plethora of Spider-Man variants from the second film could return in some fashion.
10:59The Incredibles is another hugely successful Pixar franchise
11:02that exploded in popularity almost the moment it hit theaters.
11:05There have only been two films, with the first arriving in 2004
11:09and Incredibles 2 coming in 2018.
11:11Fortunately, the gap between the second and third film won't be as long.
11:14What are you waiting for?
11:16I don't know, something amazing, I guess.
11:20Announced at the D23 convention in 2024,
11:23the Incredibles 3 reveal amounted to nothing but a shot of the title,
11:26but it was enough to send attendees into an enthusiastic round of applause.
11:30The only information that's come out since
11:31is that director Brad Bird, who helmed the first two films,
11:34will return for Incredibles 3.
11:36There's nothing concrete in terms of release date or plot just yet,
11:39but it's likely that Bird will repurpose some stuff
11:41he never got the chance to use in the second film.
11:43Speaking to Entertainment Weekly,
11:45he revealed that he had to cut a lot of things from the second film
11:47when the powers-that-be decided to swap the release dates
11:50of Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4,
11:52effectively shaving a year off the former's production time.
11:55He explained,
11:55There were a lot of ideas that we had on this film that could be reused,
11:58whether it's another Incredibles film or something else.