Summary
The year has been full of top-tier animated features, whether it be Pixar’s blockbuster sequelInside Out 2or the return of the Autobots inTransformers One. Recently, another one of 2024’s breakout animated feature films,Dreamworks’The Wild Robot,was confirmed to have a sequel in development.
The Wild Robotis an adaptation of Peter Brown’s novel of the same name, directed by Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch). Produced by Dreamworks,The Wild Robotquickly rose to critical acclaim, joining the ranks of the studio’s other hit animated filmsShrek, How to Train Your Dragon,andKung Fu Panda.The film follows a helpful robot named Roz who becomes stranded in the wilderness and must adapt to her new surroundings. Roz attempts to help the animal inhabitants of her new home and eventually bonds with a young gosling who has lost his mother.The Wild Robotstars Lupita Nyong’o as Roz, along withHeartstopper’sKit Connor as Brightbill,The Last of Usstar Pedro Pascalas Fink, and Mark Hamill as Cactus.
Now it appearsThe Wild Robotwill be the next Dreamworks film to receive the franchise.Speaking at Deadline Contenders, director Chris Sanders confirmed that “100% yes there are absolutely plans for a second one." Sanders stopped short of providing any more detail about what stage of developmentThe Wild Robotsequel is at or whether any cast members are attached. The director had expressed hopes for a sequel in a previousinterview with NBC, saying “This was a labor of love on the part of everybody at the studio, and yes, I think I’d love to go and stay here for a while.”
“100% yes there are absolutely plans for a second one."
The development of a sequel isn’t surprising givenThe Wild Robot’shuge success. The film has grossed almost $150 million at the worldwide box office at the time of writing and is already in talks forBest Animated Feature at next year’s Academy Awards.The Wild Robothas maintained a 98% positive critics score on Rotten Tomatoes since its release, which is now matched with a 98% approval rate on the audience Popcornmeter. As far as positive reception goes,The Wild Robothas had a stellar one.
It would make sense that the sequel toThe Wild Robotwould continue to follow the story set out in Peter Brown’s novels. Brown has written three novels inThe Wild Robotseries, which include:
The firstThe Wild Robotfilm effectively covers the events of Brown’s first book, makingThe Wild Robot Escapesa likely direction for the sequel to go in.The Wild Robot Escapesshows what happens to Roz when she isreturned to the robot factoryand is forced to live among human civilization after adapting to life in the wilderness. While forced to work on a farm, Roz has dreams of escaping and returning to find her son, Brightbill on the island. This would line up with the finale depicted in the film version ofThe Wild Robot. The film ends on something of a cliffhanger for Brightbill and Roz, which will now finally be resolved inThe Wild Robot’ssequel. What’s more exciting is thatThe Wild Robot Escapeshas been rated even higher than The Wild Robot by readers on Goodreads, meaning the sequel has the potential to be even better than the original film.
