DreamWorks Animation’s prehistoric family adventure The Croods became a critical/commercial success in 2013 – and a sequel in The Croods 2 has been in the works since then. Set to feature most of the returning cast and crew from the original film (crucially including The Croods‘ co-directors Kirk De Micco and and Chris Sanders), the Croods followup would be a continuation of what has already become a franchise. Indeed, a Croods TV show spinoff titled Dawn of the Croods has already been developed and it premiered on Netflix, back in December of 2015.
Set to feature Croods voice actors Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone and Nicolas Cage, among others, The Croods 2 will see the big screen return to the fictional prehistoric Pliocene era teeming with original creatures and characters. It should offer fans of the first movie plenty of incentive and reason to come along for the ride. Unfortunately, that return won’t be quite as soon as previously expected, now that De Micco and Sanders’s sequel has been delayed.
As reported by Variety, distributor 20th Century Fox has moved the release date for The Croods 2 from December 2017 to an undecided date in 2018 in order to make room for their own feature, The Story of Ferdinand (which has already been bumped back from its own initial July 2017 release date). Following the acquisition of DreamWorks Animation by Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, the fate of many of the former production studio’s upcoming feature length animated films has remained largely up in the air. This, in turn, makes the delay of The Croods 2 (which we haven’t gotten an update on in a while) less of a surprise.
There are currently three DreamWorks Animation movies still slated for release in 2017 (including Trolls), after which time Fox will no longer be in charge of distributing the studio’s feature-length efforts. There has obviously been a lot of upheaval surrounding the motion picture productions undertaken on the behalf of DreamWorks of late, but with any luck The Croods 2 will move forward without another hitch after this point.
With Reynolds, Stone, and Cage being joined by new cast members Kat Dennings and Leslie Mann on The Croods 2, potential viewers of De Micco and Sanders’ forthcoming sequel have something to look forward to when the new movie finally sees theatrical release come 2018. That being said, anyone who has enjoyed the wildly imaginative animated family comedy series thus far can begin anticipating the big screen return to the prehistoric Pliocene era sometime next year.
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The Croods 2 will see theatrical release in the U.S. in 2018.
