A sequel to Zootropolis has been at the front of writer/director Jared Bush’s mind since before the first one was even released – just because it’s taken nearly a decade to get here doesn’t mean he wasn’t always thinking about it.
He told Zavvi: “Byron Howard, my directing partner, and I always knew this was a fun, rich world, where no matter where you pointed a camera, there’d be a new story to find, new animals to meet and new neighbourhoods to explore. However, as we were having those conversations, we also started talking about Encanto, which became the next five years of my life – but I’d never stopped working on ideas to develop this world.
“Even in the middle of Encanto, I was creating new stories and developing characters for the Zootropolis land in Shanghai Disney World, and writing episodes of a Zootropolis Disney+ show, so weirdly for me I never felt this nine-year gap. I was having the best time living with these characters and finding ways to expand this world before sitting down to actually make the sequel.”
The Idea That Started It All Off
This time around, plucky police rabbit Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) and her foxy friend Nick (Jason Bateman) have settled into their new roles in the Zootropolis Police Department, although the mismatched partners cause untold destruction when it comes to solving cases. After reports that a snake, one of the few species outlawed in the city, has been sighted, Judy ignores orders from above to investigate herself and uncovers a new conspiracy which implicates the founders of the city, and may clear the name of snakes for good.
The snake who teams up with Nick and Judy here is Gary (Ke Huy Quan), and surprisingly, introducing a slithering sidekick was Bush’s very first idea for where the sequel should go.
“Very early on, Byron and I knew that we wanted to bring reptiles into the story. We’d talked over a decade ago about how they must exist in this world, which raised the question of why we didn’t see them in the first film – and we used that to form the basis of the mystery, which helped us negate something from the previous film in a way that deepened it.
“Once we knew that was our target, we put it aside, because we knew the Judy and Nick relationship is what so many people fell in love with – it resonated with us as much as it did for audiences. This was more of a challenge, because sequels to buddy cop stories don’t typically function on a narrative level; once opposites become friends after working together, there’s not a whole lot else to do with them, so figuring that dynamic out was a challenge.
“The key was remembering that in the first film, they only had 48 hours to solve the case, so they’ve only known each other for two days. It was then we realised we could lean into the fact they don’t know each other as well as the audience assumes, and we designed the neighbourhoods around that; putting them in as many situations that would make them as uncomfortable as we could to really pressure test their dynamic.
“It was fun to really flesh out those trouble spots, and have these little fractures which grow deeper, forcing them to a darker place that they can come back together stronger from.”
How To Make The Perfect Sequel
Bush has been upfront about taking inspiration from the buddy cop genre for the first film, but he knew he needed to cast his web of influences wider this time. Quite simply, he looked at as many of the greatest sequels ever made to try and work out what made them tick.
“Lethal Weapon is something that I grew up on, and of course you’ll see echoes of it here”, he explained, “but there aren’t many buddy cop sequels which actually push the characters further. Instead, we overanalysed what we ended up referring to as “continuation stories”, the sequels which were best at developing their characters further.
“Toy Story was the most helpful, because Toy Story 2 is just as much of a masterpiece as the first through the way it understands how to make those relationships continue, recognising how to deploy new characters to push the leads in the direction they need to go. Here, you’ve got Gary the Snake, someone more optimistic than Judy, who is like a mirror version of her, and Nibbles Maplestick (Fortune Feimster), who knows the city better than Nick – it leads them to rely on new people, which is hard for them both to do.”
Love In the Air for Judy and Nick?
Which brings us to the elephant in the room: some critics have interpreted the shifting dynamic between Nick and Judy as the franchise hinting at a will-they, won’t-they relationship between a bunny and a fox. The director and his producing partner, Yvett Merino, are split on how much they want audiences to read into this, even though both are already keenly aware that they will.
Merino told Zavvi: “What I love about continuing this story is finding out how that relationship evolves beyond the first 48 hours they were together. That’s minimal, and I love that Jared and Byron really made their relationship the focus here, forcing them to get to know each other more and see how differently they view the world.
“I think there’s a moment in any relationship when you either retreat because of the differences, or dive in and really try to understand them, and that’s a fascinating place to lead Nick and Judy. But I view them as two friends trying to understand their friendship and where it might lead, not as a will-they, won’t-they!”
“I do love that people read that into the relationship”, Bush added. “It speaks to the undeniable chemistry they have, which is so fun to see onscreen.
“I think you can read either interpretation of that relationship into this story. It charts a path right in the middle where if you’re a fan who wants that to happen, or if you’re a fan who hates the sound of that, you’ll leave satisfied!”
Zootropolis 2 is released in UK cinemas on Friday, 28th November.
