There is a great deal of evolution involved when it comes to movies developed by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Part of the creative process by the filmmakers is to repeatedly construct and deconstruct ideas until the best path forward is uncovered and pursued. In the modern era of the studio, the approach has produced a terrific track record when it comes to what’s brought to the big screen, but an interesting side effect is wondering about the versions of any given title that didn’t move forward. In the case of Zootopia 2, there exists a question concerning the time gap between the sequel and its predecessor.
In the long-awaited follow-up, audiences are reunited with protagonists Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) in the immediate aftermath of their successful exposure of corruption at City Hall, but that wasn’t always the approach that the sequel was going to take. Speaking with Goodwin this past weekend during the Los Angeles press day for Zootopia 2, she told me that there was a version of the 2025 movie that executed a time jump. The actress explained,
Well, there was another version that we did. There’s always like the story that we’re going to tell, but yes, there’s different iterations of that. And there was a version of the story that was going to pick up a couple of years after the end of the first story. And I think the realization was that there was too much time for change and growth off camera to have happened.
The initial story instinct is entirely understandable. The first Zootopia was released nine years ago, and there is a logic in having the characters age along with the audience. If this were a live-action series, such a move would actually be necessary just to explain why the actors are older… but Zootopia 2 being an animated feature didn’t have to contend with that restriction, and it was ultimately felt that it wasn’t the best approach for the storytelling.
Executing a time jump would have meant adding in a lot of exposition explaining how the lives of the characters and their world has changed, and as Ginnifer Goodwin noted, there was a richer path to explore by picking up where the first movie ended:
It makes a lot more sense to bring the audience with us on the ride and experience the letdown of Nick and Judy have just saved the city, but what’s that hangover like? Then how are the characters gonna try and overcompensate, or in Judy’s case, prove to herself that she deserved to have had this win? And now she feels even a greater pressure to prove herself. And going with her on that ride starting a week later I think was a really genius move.
In Zootopia 2, Nick and Judy are officially working as partners for the Zootopia Police Department, and things get dramatic quickly as snake sighting reports open the door to investigating a conspiracy regarding the founding of the city. In addition to returning stars Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba and Shakira, the talented cast also includes Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, Andy Samberg, David Straithairn, Patrick Warburton and Quinta Brunson.
The movie arrives everywhere in theaters on November 26, and stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more from my interviews with the film’s stars.