Sequel Bits: ‘The Conjuring 3’, ‘Bumblebee’, ‘Sing 2’, ‘The Croods 2’, ‘Trolls’ & More
In this edition of Sequel Bits:
First up, if you’re eagerly anticipating the upcoming animated sequels to Illumination Entertainment’sSingand DreamWorks Animation’sThe Croods,Deadlinesays you’ll be waiting a little bit longer.
First,Sing 2has been bumped from a December 2020 opening to a new summer release date ofJuly 2, 2021. The sequel will bring backMatthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton, Nick KrollandTori Kellyfrom the original movie as the animal singers Buster, Meena, Rosita, Gunter, Johnny and Ash prepare for a bigger stage, leaving the Moon Theater behind for the big city.
AndThe Croods 2will be moving into the vacated August 13, 2025 release date, leaving behind the previously set September 2020 opening.Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris LeachmanandClark Dukeare reprising their roles as the titular caveman family while Leslie Mann and Peter Dinklage have joined the cast as part of another family.
If that’s not enough of animation news for you, Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation are teaming up with VStar Entertainment Group to take a Trolls live show on tour across 60 cities.
DeadlinereportsTrolls Live!will have “singing, dancing and glitter-filled celebration that only the Trolls can bring.” The show will have its own original story following Poppy and Branch as they enlist the help of Biggie and Mr. Dinkles, Satin and Chenille, Cooper, Cloud Guy, Smidge, Guy Diamond and Fuzzbert when the beloved tradition of Hug Time is threatened. It’s all in support of the upcoming animated sequelTrolls World Tourarriving in 2020, and the spin-off animated seriesTrolls: The Beat Goes On!
Trolls may be computer animated, but the show will use a combination of scenic projection, puppetry, media technology and special effects and interactive surprises, so your kids will lose their goddamn minds. The show begins touring sometime later this year.
Bumblebeemay not have been as big of a box office hit as Paramount Pictures was hoping, but theTransformersspin-off did deliver the most satisfying entry in the franchise since the original movie debuted in 2007. But the ending resulted in the camaraderie between the titular Autobot and his teenage friend Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld) seemingly coming to an end. Will they end up reuniting in the sequel, or will this just allow Bumblebee to have a new adventure with someone else?
DirectorTravis Knighttalked about why he felt having Charlie and Bee go their separate ways was necessary to have a story that had a beginning, middle and end, though he doesn’t rule out the possibility of them seeing each other again. Knight toldComicBook.com:
“I’m sure a creative mind could come up with a way to bring them back together, but it was always incredibly important to me that this film, even though it sits within a larger context of mythology and comics and cartoons and films, that this film be self contained that it lives on its own. That it had a beginning, it had a middle and an end and it had proper resolution. And so as I was charting the relationship between these two character there was no other way for it to end. It had to end with them parting. It’s about one of those relationships, one of those life changing relationships that where someone comes into your orbit and fundamentally changes your trajectory moving forward. And it was, he has his mission to do and he has to go do it and she has her life and she has to live and she has to go live it. And they change each others lives, but then they had to part and that was the story that I was telling. And so even though I love seeing them together, and I was sad when they had to part as well. It was critical for what this movie was.”
Even thoughGothamis coming to an end, another Batman prequel series is just beginning. This time, we’re flashing back to the younger days of Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred Pennyworth in the aptly named seriesPennyworth.
Jack Bannonplays the title role in the series set in 1960s London, when Alfred Pennyworth was a former British SAS soldier who forms a security company and goes to work with Thomas Wayne. The rest of the cast includesPaloma Faith, Ben Aldridge, Hainsley Lloyd Bennett, Ryan Fletcher, Jason FlemyngandPolly Walker.
Pennyworth debuts on Epix startingJuly 28, 2019.
Finally, directorMichael Chavestook to his websiteto post this official title artwork fromThe Conjuring 3. Along with the image, he also posted this quote from Ed Warren:
“Diabolical forces are formidable. These forces are eternal, and they exist today. The fairy tale is true. The devil exists. God exists. And for us, as people, our very destiny hinges upon which one we elect to follow.”
The Conjuring 3 has been said to focus on a man on trial for a murderwho claims that he was possessed by a demon and didn’t willingly commit the crime. Obviously, Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick WilsonandVera Farmiga) will be needed to work on the case.
