It could be the least surprising movie news in years, but a sequel to Frozen is “in the works,” says Idina Menzel, the voice of Elsa in the Oscar-winning and highest-grossing animated film of all time and singer of the film’s insanely popular theme song, Let It Go.
Before the news of a Frozen sequel gets you all hot and bothered, it’s important to note that sources close to the original project deny a sequel is indeed in the works.
Menzel was quoted deep in a lengthy profile with UK-based newspaper The Telegraph saying the sequel and a stage musical (another, previously announced and also obvious extension of the brand for Disney) were being created. Here are the key lines from the Telegraph story:
What can Menzel tell us of those plans?
“That they’re all in the works, ha ha!”
Is she signed up for them all?
“Ah, yeah sure… Not the stage show – I don’t know what will happen with that – but the movie hopefully. We’ll see. I’m just going along for the ride,” she says.
All told, the first Frozen grossed $ 1.274 billion in theaters worldwide, easily a record for an animated film, after its release almost exactly a year ago. The soundtrack, led by Let It Go, topped sales charts for months as well. The film won Oscars for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song.
Since then, Disney has rolled out a series of Frozen-related TV, game and home-entertainment spinoffs, including a cross-over TV episode with Disney-owned ABC’s Once Upon A Time and a sing-along video version.
And practically from the start, Disney has had the happy challenge of trying to get enough Frozen-themed merchandise into stores to meet customer demand. For months, the company had to employ a lottery system to determine which retailers would get the latest allotments arriving from manufacturers.
Thomas Schumacher, the Disney executive behind a series of other film-to-stage adaptations as president of the theatrical group, told The Hollywood Reporter last month that a stage production is still a long way off from hitting the boards of Broadway. He gave no specifics on when it might open, saying making the show great was more important than making it fast.
Similarly, Disney CEO Bob Iger and other executives have studiously avoided specifics on a Frozen film sequel. Given the film’s mammoth success, however, a sequel seems more of a “when” question than an “if.”
David Bloom
