Frozen 2 Trailer Has Surpassed The Lion King in Views

The hype for Walt Disney Animation's Frozen 2 is very real and, as the November release date creeps ever closer, it's starting to pick up steam. Months after the trailer for the film dropped online, the view count has already surpassed Disney's other major hit this year, not including Marvel's Avengers: Endgame. The Frozen 2 trailer officially has more YouTube views than the trailer for The Lion King.

If you recall, The Lion King's initial trailer was a record-breaker upon its release, but it has now been surpassed by that of Frozen 2. The trailer for Disney's highly anticipated sequel has amassed more than 60 million total views on YouTube, compared to The Lion King's 59 million.

Part of the reason the anticipation for Frozen 2 is so high is because fans have been waiting for a sequel for more than half a decade. The first Frozen was an enormous hit for Disney in 2013 and everyone knew there would be a sequel, but no one expected to be waiting for six entire years.

According to star Kristen Bell, the wait was mostly due to director Jennifer Lee and the creative team wanting to make sure the story for the sequel was fresh and delivered the same kind of reaction as its predecessor.

"The reason they didn't green light it so quickly is because nobody knew what it was gonna be," Bell said told Collider. "Nobody wanted it to be Episode 2 of Frozen, where Anna lost her shoes. No. It was about, what are the emotional undercurrents where we can show growth and character development in these people? What are we saying? It's not just about providing a problem and have an end of a second act, and then a third act. It's a beautiful story, and I think it says something pretty powerful. I'm glad that they took the time that they did because I think it's really good. And it's definitely a different Frozen. It's a more developed Frozen."

"Yeah, they took so much time with it, for a reason," she added. "It went through so many filters, and Jen [Lee] kept going back to the drawing board, until she got it exactly right. To even find the story, she journaled, as the characters, for months. She would open a journal and be like, 'What's Anna doing today?,' just to find where she's stunted, where does she needs to grow, and what's important. It was pretty impressive."

Are you looking forward to Frozen 2? How many times have you watched the trailer? Let us know in the comments!

Frozen 2 is set to hit theaters on November 22nd. Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck direct with a script from Allison Schroeder. Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff, Sterling K. Brown, and Evan Rachel Wood are set to star.