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Walt Disney Animation’s most successful film franchise of all time is undoubtedly the phenomenon that is the Frozen movies. Both Frozen and Frozen II are among the few animated films to cross $1 billion dollars in box office earnings along with being consistent Halloween costume favorites among kids and adults alike. So, when Disney boss Bob Iger announced that Frozen 3 is happening early this year, it surprised absolutely no one. However, the upcoming threequel’s producer shared comments on the return to Arendelle that rival reservations that the movie is perhaps in development just because it’ll be a surefire moneymaker.
Jennifer Lee is the current chief creative officer at Walt Disney Animation Studios and the writer and co-director behind the first two Frozen movies. She has been announced as a producer on Frozen 3, but in a first-time shakeup for the franchise, she won’t be directing this time. While speaking at the BFI London Film Festival this week, Lee said this about why Frozen 3 is in production:
Our philosophy is this, and it won’t change: If there is more story to tell, the filmmakers have to drive it. And I’ll say with ‘Frozen,’ Marc Smith, who was our director of story on ‘Frozen 2,’ came with an incredible idea for more ‘Frozen,’ and it’s worth it.
Sequels don’t necessarily have a good reputation at Walt Disney Animation, with many of them in the past being direct-to-video releases and seriously dipping in quality. But perhaps Frozen 3 could prove those naysayers wrong with a blockbuster animated trilogy that will surpass any journey Walt Disney Animation has gone on before.
As Lee shared (via Variety), Marc Smith, who has written the story for Frozen II along with the 2015 short Frozen Fever, pitched an idea for the third Frozen movie, and she’s already “blown away” by the work that has been done. She said:
Every morning last week they carved out space for me to work with the creative team on it, and I am blown away and I am so excited. I don’t know what I’m doing on it yet — I’m not doing nothing — except doing what I do now, which is we work on every project as a team and I’m in there with creative. But with ‘Frozen,’ just a little bit more.
Frozen is clearly an especially important property to Lee considering her past involvement in the first two movies. And as she spoke to at the London Film Festival, she only would have greenlit another Frozen movie if there was a solid reason to revisit the beloved characters. It sounds like Disney has found a way in through its unknown plotline. Lee suggested that she most definitely has a part in the making of Frozen 3, but for the time being it’s a producer role in its development more than anything else.
Since Lee was named the chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation in 2018, she’s greatly stepped back from writing and directing her most recent Disney projects, but she did pen the next animated release among upcoming Disney movies, Wish.
We’ll have to wait and see what the plans are for Frozen 3, but you can check out CinemaBlend’s interview with Jennifer Lee where she spoke about her influences for Wish’s heroine Asha ahead of the original Disney musical hitting theaters on November 22.