Posted in: Disney, Movies | Tagged: disney, zootopia, zootopia 2

Zootopia 2 Co-Director on the Film's Extensive Production Process

Zootopia 2 filmmakers reflect on the five-year process and 700-person team behind the sequel, and how it feels to finally share it.

Nearly a decade after Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde first hit the big screen, the team behind Zootopia has returned to the mammal metropolis with Zootopia 2, and they are very aware of how much these stories require from everyone involved before anyone else has the opportunity to see them. When recently reflecting on the process behind Zootopia 2, one of the returning filmmakers addressed the extensive process (and satisfaction that comes with it) in a conversation with Screen Rant. 

"Our movies take about five years to make. For most of that five years, you're just with your team inside a building," co-director Jared Bush reveals. "No one else is experiencing these characters of this world, and you hope that what you're building together [works]. Because internally we love it, but you don't know if that's going to resonate. When it does, it means so much because 700 people pour their hearts into any one of these stories. When you're watching these movies, it's hyper collaborative. The best idea always wins as you're moving through it. To have people relate to these characters, or to have these stories resonate, it's a dream that you hope can happen. But until it goes out into the world, you don't know."

Everything You Need to Know About Zootopia 2

Zootopia 2 arrives just over nine years after the Oscar-winning original and reunites directors Bush and Byron Howard with producer Yvett Merino. Once again, the story centers on rabbit officer Judy Hopps and fox con artist turned cop Nick Wilde, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman, who are now established partners in the Zootopia Police Department. This time, they are pulled into a mystery involving Gary De'Snake, a charismatic pit viper whose sudden arrival exposes a hidden reptile community and forces the city to confront the ways it has left whole groups out of its bright, inclusive image.

The sequel also brings back key voices from the first film, including Shakira, Idris Elba, Jenny Slate, Bonnie Hunt, Nate Torrence, and Alan Tudyk, and layers in an extensive roster of newcomers. Ke Huy Quan joins as Gary De'Snake, while Fortune Feimster, Andy Samberg, David Strathairn, Patrick Warburton, Quinta Brunson, Danny Trejo, and others round out what Disney describes as one of the largest voice casts in the studio's animation history, with more than seventy celebrity voices filling out the city.

Zootopia 2 premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on November 13, 2025, and opened wide in the United States on November 26. Fortunately, early box office numbers and reviews suggest that the wait has paid off for returning fans. As of now, the film has already crossed $550 million worldwide and holds a strong Rotten Tomatoes score in the low nineties, with critics praising its expanded world-building and all too relevant themes around bias and inclusion. And, for the hundreds of artists who spent years inside the studio shaping every frame, we can only assume it makes those five years pretty worthwhile.

Zootopia 2 is in theaters everywhere.

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