Disney is not letting this franchise go. Here’s what we know about the upcoming Frozen sequels — yup, there are two of ‘em — including the latest updates from D23 on Frozen 3’s release date and concept art.
It’s happening
November 16, 2023: Disney hasn’t even taken Frozen 3out of the freezer (it’s way in the back, just behind TikTok’schilly reactions to Wish), but when have petty inconveniences like “linear time” ever stopped Bob Iger? The Disney CEO was on Good Morning America to promote the new “World of Frozen” section at Hong Kong Disneyland when he dropped a “little surprise” for Michael Strahan, saying, “Frozen 3 is in the works, and there might be a Frozen 4 in the works too.” Iger didn’t reveal much else besides writer-director Jennifer Lee being “hard at work with her team at Disney Animation on not one but actually two stories.” Not to use a technical filmmaking term, but it sounds like they’re going into Avatar mode.
No details have come out yet regarding the plot of Frozen 3, and the muddy 2019 first sequel didn’t leave viewers with a super-clear sense of where the franchise was headed. That’s where the Frozen podcast comes in. In October, Disney and Wondery launched a narrative show called Disney Frozen: Forces of Nature, releasing weekly episodes that are part sequel and part spinoff, with a lot more Frozen lore. Namely, some new characters have been introduced: There’s the Duke of Weselton’s nephew Wolfgang, and a new bestie named Queen Disa, who comes from a neighboring kingdom and is essentially one of those women-in-STEM characters the studio is addicted to making (see also: the girl in the live-action Dumbo andEmma Watson in Beauty and the Beast). There’s a ton of new information out there if you’re willing to listen to 12 episodes of a podcast for children.
Still defrosting
August 9, 2024: It’s been a while since we got our last Frozen update, but don’t worry, thesequel plans haven’t been put on ice. At this year’s D23 Expo, Disney announced that Frozen 3 is now slated to release in 2027. The threequel was teased with concept art of Elsa, Anna, and Olaf on horseback. While we didn’t get any sneak peeks at Frozen 4, it does seem to still be in the works. “There were a lot of questions coming out of Frozen 2,” writer-director Jennifer Lee teased. “It will take two films to answer them.”
