DreamWorks is riding high into 2025 after the global success of its latest animated film, The Wild Robot. The story of the nature-loving Roz, voiced by Lupita Nyong’o, resonated with audiences of all ages when it hit theaters last year, scoring an unexpected $325 million haul at the box office and becoming one of the animation studio’s highest-rated films to date. It’s also up for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. After such an accomplishment, it took almost no time for a sequel to get the green light to explore where the titular robot goes next. Fortunately for writer-director Chris Sanders and producer Jeff Hermann, there’s a lot of material to work with. The film adapts Peter Brown‘s 2016 novel of the same name and, according to the team, the author’s sequels will help inform what happens on-screen.
During an interview with Collider‘s Aidan Kelley at the Saturn Awards, Sanders and Hermann were asked about what they hoped to achieve with their follow-up to The Wild Robot. For Hermann, the direction of the story is made plain by the film’s ending. Roz spends her time on the deserted island bonding with the animals and becoming like a mother to the gosling she accidentally orphaned, Brightbill (Kit Connor). After narrowly escaping recapture by her creators, Universal Dynamics, she resolves to return to the company to ensure the island’s safety from future intrusion. A sequel, then, could see her trying to fulfill her promise to one day find a way safely back to the island in a “full circle” moment, as the producer explained:
“Well, for anybody who has seen the film, you kind of understand where it ends, and I don’t want to give too much away in my response if people haven’t seen the film yet, but the film ends in such a way that points to where a sequel could potentially pick up. And the second book, which we’re basing the series on, does continue from that point on, and it’s the remainder of that journey to full circle. So, in the first movie, she goes from point A to point B and in this one, she comes to point A around. So, where she winds up I’m not going to spoil yet, but it’s a completion of that storyline that’s very satisfying.”
‘The Wild Robot’ Plans To Tell the Complete Story From Peter Brown’s Books
Work on The Wild Robot‘s sequel is still very early on and there are still a lot of details to work out. Assuming everything goes as the team hopes, however, Hermann says they’ll be directly pulling from Brown‘s second book, The Wild Robot Escapes, to ensure that Roz and Brightbill’s storyline remains intact. “Uh, yeah, that’s what we’re talking about now,” he added. “Nothing’s been announced or anything yet. We’re not officially on it yet, so anything I’m saying here is completely taken with a grain of salt [laughs], but the hope is to be able to do that, yeah.” No guarantees can be made about the cast, but presumably main players like Nyong’o, Conner, and Pedro Pascal would return.
Sanders further hints that viewers may be in for a trilogy of adventures should all go well. In a separate conversation, he remarked on what makes Brown‘s books so special, citing their ability to explore new places and themes and feel unique from each other while still being part of the same story. His discussion could point to a desire to finish the story on the big screen. He also provided an update on where he was in his preparations for the sequel and how the team has already been intertwined with Brown‘s creative journey:
“One of the cool things… Peter does have, it’s a trilogy, Peter has three books, and I just read the second book. And, they all go to different places, so it really is a progression. That’s one of the wonderful things about the whole Wild Robot series. There is a complete tale in the three books. In fact, when we began this film, we couldn’t see Peter in person because he was madly working to finish the illustrations for the third book. And so everything was over Zoom at first because he was very very busy.”
The Wild Robot is now streaming on Peacock.
via Collider