Two ‘Zootopia’ Sequels Reportedly in the Works

Zootopia actor Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister says Walt Disney Animation Studios is developing two sequels to the hit animated film that starred Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman as anthropomorphic animal sleuths.

“I can tell you for sure I’m doing another Zootopia with Disney. We doing three of them,” Lister said during a publicity appearance reported by Blog Mickey.

“[There were] three Madagascars. We’re gonna replace that. We’re the biggest film that Disney is producing. The last one was $240 million. This one I’m hearing will be $300 million. That’s what they spent on the budget, not the advertising. But the movie made $2.6 billion, with merchandising and the box office.”

Lister voices Finnick, the big-eared fennec fox who served as the deceptively cute partner-in-crime to former scammer Nick Wilde (Bateman).

Zootopia grossed $1.023 billion worldwide, once making it the fourth highest-grossing animated film of all time, behind only Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story 3 ($1.06 billion), Illumination’s Minions ($1.15b) and Walt Disney Animation Studios’ own Frozen ($1.29b).

The film has since been pushed back to seventh place, following the release of Finding Dory (sixth, $1.02b), Despicable Me 3 (fifth, $1.03b) and Incredibles 2 (second, $1.24b).

In China, where Zootopia is known as “Crazy Animal City,” the film grossed more than $235 million to become the highest-grossing animated film of all time and the 23rd highest-grossing film in the Middle Kingdom.

Its success in China inspired Disney to set into motion plans for a Zootopia-themed expansion coming exclusively to Shanghai Disneyland, with construction to begin on that project later this year.

Directors Byron Howard (Tangled) and Rich Moore (Wreck-It Ralph) previously declared their hopes for a sequel, which would make it just the third WDAS film in the modern era — behind Frozen and 2012’s Wreck-It Ralph — to receive a big screen followup.

“We cut a lot out during the making of the film,” Howard told EW in 2016.

“We introduced districts that we talked about that couldn’t fit in, other characters that we eliminated from the movie. There’s a vast potential for this world, so I’d love to see something more come from it.”

He added, “The fan response is a huge help for that kind of thing. I think we all loved the world so much and got so attached to the characters, that we actually got a little sad when the film finally came out [because] we felt like, ‘Well, we’re kind of done with it.’ And it’s nice that there’s this potential for it to get bigger.”

Walt Disney Animation Studios next releases Frozen 2 November 21.