Zootopia 3 Is Already Inevitable for 2 Big Reasons

This post contains spoilers for Zootopia 2

The first Zootopia is one of the most successful films in Disney Animation’s rich history, grossing over $1 billion at the worldwide box office and earning widespread critical acclaim (including an Oscar win for Best Animated Feature). Featuring an interesting world ripe for exploration and a dynamic, lovable duo of lead characters, Zootopia seemed ripe for the franchise treatment, but Disney didn’t rush a sequel through the pipeline. It took nearly a decade after the original movie’s debut, but Zootopia 2 is finally here, and it’s shaping up to be even bigger than its predecessor. That means the adventures of Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde likely won’t end after just two movies.

Zootopia 3 has not been officially announced at this point in time, but anyone who’s seen Zootopia 2 knows Disney isn’t ready to say goodbye to this series yet. The impending massive box office sum would be more than enough reason for the studio to give Zootopia 3 the green light, but it appears the filmmakers were already thinking about a third installment before Zootopia 2 hit theaters.

Zootopia 2‘s Post-Credits Scene Sets Up Zootopia 3

Though Disney was likely hoping the first Zootopia would spawn a franchise, they played things safe on the off chance it didn’t connect with audiences. The original movie tells a self-contained story with a definitive ending, allowing it to work as a standalone. This time around, the filmmakers knew they had a hit on their hands, confidently planting the seeds for Zootopia 3 in Zootopia 2. While the case of the Lynxley family and Gary De’Snake is completely resolved, there’s an extra bit after the credits roll that tease where the franchise is headed.

Pulling a page from the Marvel Studios playbook (and, for that matter, Moana 2), Zootopia 2 includes a post-credits scene. In the stinger, Judy has a humorous interaction with her neighbors from the first movie, but it soon becomes clear the sequence has a far greater purpose than serving up one last laugh. After Judy leaves her apartment, a bird feather floats down from the sky and lands on her windowsill, teasing that Zootopia 3 will introduce birds to the franchise. Through two movies, there hasn’t been a bird character (Zootopia is all about mammals, while Zootopia 2 brings reptiles to the mix), so this is a natural and expected expansion of the Zootopia world.

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Other than the hint of birds, the Zootopia 2 post-credits scene doesn’t shed light on the story Zootopia 3 will look to tell. Based on the franchise’s history, it’d be reasonable to assume another thought-provoking metaphor for racial prejudice and inclusion, but the onus will be on the filmmakers to evolve the core premise. Zootopia 3 simply can’t be a retread of the second movie’s plot, with birds in the place of reptiles, or else the threequel risks diminishing returns (at least from a creative perspective). The filmmaking team likely wouldn’t have included this tease at the end of Zootopia 2 unless they had a strong idea, so right now, they’ve earned fans’ trust.

Zootopia 2‘s Box Office Performance Makes Another Sequel Inevitable

Even before box office projections for Zootopia 2 started to come in, it was widely expected the sequel would be one of the highest-grossing films of the year, potentially hitting the $1 billion milestone. Early estimates proved those expectations were not off base. Not only is Zootopia 2 poised to be a massive hit in the United States (projected $125+ million opening over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend), it’s on track to be a substantial blockbuster overseas. Zootopia 2 broke pre-sales records in China, potentially reestablishing the country as a reliable source of revenue for Hollywood productions.

It remains to be seen just how high the actual Zootopia 2 numbers are, but this kind of box office performance all but ensures Disney will keep the franchise alive for the foreseeable future. Especially coming off what was an atypically rocky year (for them) at the box office, it would be foolish for Disney to put such a lucrative IP on the shelf. Recently, multiple Pixar films have underwhelmed, Marvel isn’t as much of a draw as it used to be, and other projects were outright bombs. Zootopia is as close to a box office guarantee as Disney has under its roof, so even if there wasn’t a post-credits scene teasing there was more to come, all audiences have to do is look at the ticket sales to know Zootopia will continue to be part of the studio’s future.

What will be interesting to see is when Zootopia 3 gets off the ground. Standard industry practice suggests it’s beneficial to strike when the iron is hot, but Zootopia has already proven it can deliver a massive hit after a prolonged gap between installments. This implies Disney doesn’t have to rush Zootopia 3 out the door; the filmmakers can take their time to iron out the story and make sure they have a strong narrative worth telling, which will bode well for the threequel’s quality. For what it’s worth, Disney Animation already has Hexed scheduled for November 2026 and Frozen 3 for November 2027, so it appears the earliest Zootopia 3 could arrive is 2028 — and it probably won’t premiere until at least a couple years after that.

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