Disney’s ‘Frozen 4’ Plans Have Officially Changed, and There’s a Good Reason Why [Exclusive]

As of November, only one year will remain until the next magical trip to Arendelle. Frozen 3 is due out in theaters on November 24, 2027, with all of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, and Jonathan Groff slated to return for Anna and Kristoff’s big wedding day. Fans are still heading into the unknown with the threequel, with no exact details about the story or who else is on the invite list other than what was shared at D23 about the ceremony, Olaf’s new girlfriend, and a wicked new villain whose powers could give Elsa a run for her money. However, the upcoming adventure isn’t stopping Disney from thinking about what comes after.

The same year that Bob Iger announced in an earnings call that Frozen 3, Zootopia 2, and Toy Story 5 were all in development, it was also confirmed that Frozen 4 was on the way. The first two Frozen films’ writer and co-director Jennifer Lee then officially signed on to return for both installments in 2024, keeping the same creative DNA around for the next chapters of Anna and Elsa’s story. That said, even less is known about what that fourth film could be about and how it could build on the third outing, especially since this is the first time the wintery franchise has a clearer picture of how far it’ll go. Disney’s Head of Animation Jared Bush was able to provide a bit of insight as to how the Mouse House is approaching their next adventure and the challenges that await in continuing Frozen‘s reign.

Collider’s Steve Weintraub spoke to Bush during the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, where the topic of the next two Frozen films was brought up. When asked how much they considered Frozen 4 when plotting out the third film’s story, he admitted, “It’s tricky to answer that question.” For him personally, the hope is to make a consistent emotional arc for the residents of Arendelle that each movie can individually evolve rather than worrying solely about the plot. “I’d say for me personally — again, talking just for myself — I think you have to have a rough sense of emotionally where you want your characters to go, a sense of an emotional journey. The plot behind that, at least for me, is secondary to the character journey.” That said, he adds that Frozen 3 and 4 were initially planned to launch close together with a quick turnaround, but that ultimately didn’t square with the team’s desire to make each Frozen stand on its own while still building on what came before.

“Looking at Frozen 3 and what a Frozen 4 could look like, I know early on it was, ‘We’re going to put them right together, and they’re going to be out in the world. It’s going to happen quick.’ That’s not what we’re doing, for a lot of reasons. To me, an important one is we want to make sure that Frozen 3 is the best movie it can possibly be, so that when you get to the end of the movie, do you feel like you’ve watched a complete story? That it feels like something that feels fulfilling. That doesn’t always mean that everything is buttoned up, but it does mean that you have to be building to something that feels worthy of the end of a franchise that’s that important to people.”

“Looking at Frozen 3 and what a Frozen 4 could look like, I know early on it was, ‘We’re going to put them right together, and they’re going to be out in the world. It’s going to happen quick.’ That’s not what we’re doing, for a lot of reasons. To me, an important one is we want to make sure that Frozen 3 is the best movie it can possibly be, so that when you get to the end of the movie, do you feel like you’ve watched a complete story? That it feels like something that feels fulfilling. That doesn’t always mean that everything is buttoned up, but it does mean that you have to be building to something that feels worthy of the end of a franchise that’s that important to people.”

Four worlds and four completely different ideas of what a good life
looks like. This is where you belong, what it would ask of you, and what you would get back in
return.

You belong somewhere old enough that the mountains have names and
somebody can still tell you who gave them. Middle-earth is for people who think the right
thing is worth doing even when it will not be finished in their lifetime.

• This is the only world on the list where doing good is understood as a very long defeat,
  fought anyway, by people who will never see how it ends.
• You are drawn to grandeur, to white cities and deep forges and the sense that almost
  everything you touch is older than your entire family line.
• The Rings of Power is set in the last good age before it all goes wrong, which gives
  every quiet scene in it a slightly unbearable weight.
• You would take the hard road, and you would take it on foot.

You want the sea, a crew, and absolutely nobody telling you where
you are allowed to go. The Grand Line is the world for people whose main ambition in life is
finding out what is over there.

• One Piece has run for decades on one very simple engine, which is a group of people who
  each want something impossible and have decided to go and get it together.
• You collect people. Your ideal crew is a set of misfits who were each written off
  somewhere else before you turned up and offered them a better idea.
• The world is enormous and deliberately ridiculous, and the emotional gut punches land
  harder because of that rather than in spite of it.
• You would set sail knowing the map runs out, which is more or less the entire point of
  it.

You would rather be feared and useful than liked and useless. The
Continent is a world where the monsters are the straightforward part of the job and the
people are where it all gets complicated.

• Witchers get paid to do what nobody else will and resented for existing at all, which is
  a trade most people would refuse and you would probably accept.
• You have no real illusions about which side is the good one, largely because on the
  Continent that question tends to have a disappointing answer.
• The best of these stories are not about the fighting. They are about somebody with a
  rigid code being repeatedly cornered into caring about people.
• You would take the coin, finish the job properly, and be out of town before the story
  got told wrong.

You want the myths to be real and loose in the actual world, and
you want to find out at about thirteen that you were never anywhere near as ordinary as
everybody kept telling you.

• Percy Jackson takes the oldest stories we have and drops them into car parks and diners,
  which makes the gods considerably funnier and a great deal worse.
• You would be the kid every school gave up on, who turns out to have been built for
  something nobody thought to test for.
• The series is genuinely about friendship rather than destiny, and it says so out loud
  every time a prophecy tries to get in the way.
• Camp Half-Blood is the real fantasy here: a place where the thing that made you
  difficult everywhere else is the thing that makes you belong.

Disney Isn’t Going to Rush ‘Frozen 4’

• Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

• Image via Netflix

• Image via Walt Disney Animation Studios

• Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Image via Netflix

Image via Walt Disney Animation Studios

Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Bush further adds that there naturally has to be some consideration of the future. The mindset with two Frozens on the horizon, however, has been geared towards outlining Arendelle’s future rather than becoming too married to an exact idea that necessitates upending Frozen 3‘s story to fit it. The last thing he wants is for the next film’s story and how it evolves the world to be compromised to fit the next chapter.

“But then you also need to think, ‘Okay, well, if there was a future story, what might that look like?’ You have to have a rough sense of that. But I’d say in my personal experience, I try not to go too in the weeds on that because it can lock you into a Frozen 3 that you may want to change or make better. If you’re so rigid on what [Frozen] 4 might look like, then it could stifle you, and that’s not something that I want to do.”

❤Enjoying this article? Support our work with a small crypto donation.Donate

×

Support Our Work

Your donation, in crypto, helps us keep going.

USD 10 USD 25 USD 50 USD 100 Custom

Enter amount (USD)

Name (optional)

Email (for your receipt)

Message (optional)

Donate with Crypto

        </blockquote>

“But then you also need to think, ‘Okay, well, if there was a future story, what might that look like?’ You have to have a rough sense of that. But I’d say in my personal experience, I try not to go too in the weeds on that because it can lock you into a Frozen 3 that you may want to change or make better. If you’re so rigid on what [Frozen] 4 might look like, then it could stifle you, and that’s not something that I want to do.”

In theory, having both Frozen movies in development at the same time should make the wait between each shorter than that between the previous chapters. He generally agreed when Weintraub brought up the possibility of around a three-year separation between 3 and 4. However, Disney isn’t afraid to wait a bit longer to ensure one of their biggest franchises returns at the highest quality possible, especially after both Toy Story 5 and Zootopia 2 soared well over $1 billion globally after seven and nearly ten-year waits, respectively. “Something I noticed, certainly for Disney Animation, is if the future story is great, it doesn’t matter how much time has passed,” Bush asserted. “And I’d say that for a musical, even more so. I think a little extra time is not a bad thing because the character is going to need to sing again.”

The musical element makes Frozen an even greater challenge to bring back so consistently. “Let It Go,” “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?,” and “Into the Unknown” have been so integral to the identity of the series, transcending the movies themselves to become Disney classics that fans still sing along to. Making more songs that not only have that same effect, but make sense within the context of the story and the characters’ journey, is a colossal challenge, Bush confirms, even with the talents of composers Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez back in the fold. It’s another layer of creative effort that also has to evolve with each chapter.

“That’s actually no easy feat. There’s never been a trilogy musical in cinema, to my knowledge, let alone four, right? So, what are these characters singing about? That’s really important for us to figure out. You can’t just say, ‘Well, now they sing something.’ All of our characters for our movies sing about the most important thing in their life. You have to then believe, in the future story, there’s a new, most important thing in their life for them to sing about. That means there’s a lot of character journey to work out.”

        </blockquote>

“That’s actually no easy feat. There’s never been a trilogy musical in cinema, to my knowledge, let alone four, right? So, what are these characters singing about? That’s really important for us to figure out. You can’t just say, ‘Well, now they sing something.’ All of our characters for our movies sing about the most important thing in their life. You have to then believe, in the future story, there’s a new, most important thing in their life for them to sing about. That means there’s a lot of character journey to work out.”

On top of all the story considerations, there’s also the constant challenge of making the music feel unique to whatever Frozen film it comes from without completely betraying the fantasy’s identity. “Then, as you go from movie to movie, you want those songs to feel different, that you’re not repeating yourself, but also don’t feel like it’s music from a different type of movie,” Bush concluded. “So, it’s a lot of hard work.” It’s already a challenge for Frozen 3, but as attention turns to the fourth installment, it’ll only become a greater hurdle with every subsequent trip to Arendelle and turn of Anna and Elsa’s journey.

Frozen 3 releases in theaters on November 24, 2027. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on Frozen 4 after the latest chapter unfolds.

Frozen 4

Show Some Love By Sharing

---

Discover more from NAIRAVOICE.COM.NG

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Type your email…

Subscribe

❤Enjoyed this? A small crypto donation helps us keep publishing.Donate