Anna Kendrick Breaks Silence on Early Release of Trolls World Tour Because of Coronavirus Shutdown

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a pretty prominent effect on the entertainment industry, with blockbuster movies, in particular, needing to quickly shift their release strategy. Some recent releases have been hopping over to Video on Demand earlier than they’d initially planned, while others are rescheduling their premiere dates for later in the fall. Trolls World Tour, the upcoming sequel to the smash animated hit, is trying to have its cake and eat it too, by debuting both theatrically and on VOD on the same day next month. While the move is certainly unexpected, it’s one that has garnered a generally-positive response — including from one of its stars, Anna Kendrick. Earlier this month, Kendrick took to Twitter to express positivity about the news, saying “I’m so happy we can spread the joy while everyone stays safe”.

The announcement came as Universal moved all of its recent releases – The Invisible Man, The Hunt, and Emma – to VOD early, to incentivize people staying home during the pandemic. With essentially all of American movie theater chains shut down in recent weeks, it’s unclear how wide of a theatrical release Trolls: World Tour will end up having, but it will presumably be able to be seen in theaters in some international markets.

“Given the rapidly evolving and unprecedented changes to consumers’ daily lives during this difficult time, the company felt that now was the right time to provide this option in the home as well as in theaters. NBCUniversal will continue to evaluate the environment as conditions evolve and will determine the best distribution strategy in each market when the current unique situation changes,” NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said in a statement at the time.

“Universal Pictures has a broad and diverse range of movies with 2020 being no exception. Rather than delaying these films or releasing them into a challenged distribution landscape, we wanted to provide an option for people to view these titles in the home that is both accessible and affordable,” he continued. “We hope and believe that people will still go to the movies in theaters where available, but we understand that for people in different areas of the world that is increasingly becoming less possible.”

Trolls World Tour will be available on VOD for a suggested retail price of $19.99, which, if you break it down, would be less than the price of a family of four going to see it in a theater.

Trolls World Tour will follow Poppy (Anna Kendrick) and Branch (Justin Timberlake) on an adventure that takes them well beyond what they’ve known before, discovering six different Troll tribes scattered over six different lands and devoted to six different kinds of music: Funk, Country, Techno, Classical, Pop and Rock. There’s hard rock royals Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom) and her dad King Thrash (Ozzy Osbourne) who want to destroy all other kinds of music to let rock reign supreme. With the fate of the world at stake, Poppy and Branch, along with their friends — Biggie (James Corden), Chenille (Caroline Hjelt), Satin (Aino Jawo), Cooper (Ron Funches) and Guy Diamond (Kunal Nayyar) — set out to visit all the other lands to unify the Trolls in harmony against Barb, who’s looking to upstage them all.

The film will also feature the voice talents of Mary J. Blige, George Clinton, Anderson Paak, Kelly Clarkson, Sam Rockwell, Flula Borg, J Balvin, Ester Dean, Anthony Ramos, Jamie Dornan, Gustavo Dudamel, Charlyne Yi, Kenan Thompson, Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy, and Griffin McElroy.

Trolls World Tour will be released on April 10th.