Zootopia 2 will invite audiences back into the anthropomorphic animal kingdom that won over fans and critics alike when the first movie debuted in 2016. Once again centered on rabbit police officer Judy Hoops (Ginnifer Goodwin) and her fox partner Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), Zootopia 2 sees the pair hunting down a mysterious reptile who has upended their society.

Other returning creatives include original movie directors Jared Bush and Byron Howard, composer Michael Giacchino, who scored Inside Out, Up, and The Incredibles, and Shakira, who plays Gazelle and has contributed a new song for the movie. Newcomers include Ke Huy Quan, Macaulay Culkin, and Brenda Song.

ScreenRant‘s Tatiana Hullender attended an early press day for Zootopia 2, where she spoke with producer Yvett Merino, directors Jared Bush and Byron Howard, Head of Animation Chad Sellers, Disney Animation Head of Story Carrie Liao, and story supervisor David VanTuyle. The creatives reflected on the long journey that will bring Zootopia 2 to theaters on November 26.

Zootopia 2 Is Still A Judy & Nick Story–But A “More Global” One

Zootopia 2 has the unenviable challenge of living up to a beloved original film, a daunting task many sequels fall short of accomplishing. But Jared Bush and Byron Howard had a tried-and-true first step to going from blank page to completed screenplay: throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.

“It is a style of Jared and Byron’s,” producer Yvett Merino said, “They throw everything in, and we’re like, ‘We need to find out what the story is.’” That said, Merino added, “It’s always been a story about exploring and talking about why reptiles weren’t in Zootopia, as we know from the first film. That’s one of the core threads.”

Emotionally, Jared Bush made clear that the movie, “from the beginning,” was “a story about Judy and Nick.” “They came together in the first film,” he added, “and this is a day or two later. They’ve only known each other for 48 hours, so that [dynamic] had to remain the same.”

Disney Head of Story Carrie Liao said that some of the biggest challenges in story creation and refinement came with expanding the world of Zootopia. “The first Zootopia is already a mystery,” she said, “but since now we’re like, ‘We want to see new worlds and new characters,’ I think, we went big.”

“There were a lot of things where it’s like, ‘What kinds of new lands do we do? How do we show this? Do we show this?’” Liao continued. “There’s a lot of options out there.”

Some things were always likely to make it to the final screenplay (Liao revealed that one, Marsh Market, was “always something that Jared wanted to do; it was the environment where it’s half in water, half out of water”), but others were destined to fall away.

Art by Cory Loftis

As shown in the concept art of a car chase scene journalists were treated to during the early access day, the story of Zootopia 2 was jam-packed from the start. And yet, Bush explained, “More than anything else, it’s about paring things down to make sure that your central story remains the focus.”

How Zootopia 2’s Expanding Menagerie Brought New Challenges

Art by Sang Jun Lee

“There are lots of characters in this movie,” Bush said, even if they aren’t all stars of the show. “The fun thing about this movie is that you can actually put a bunch of characters in, even if they just show up for half a second. There’s something about animals that makes them memorable.”

“With the new characters, there are some challenges,” Carrie Liao admitted, “especially in Marsh Market; we have pinnipeds like sea lions and walruses that don’t have legs; that’s an interesting challenge where it’s like, ‘Oh, okay. How do we make them fit into this world?’”

“And, of course, reptiles,” Liao added, “They’re a huge part of the second film, and they have such unique characteristics where it’s like, ‘Okay, how can we play with what they do that’s unique, and also have it be even a surprise for the characters in the film like Nick and Judy?’”

A reptile that is especially beloved by the Zootopia 2 filmmakers is Gary DeSnake, a–you guessed it–snake voiced by Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Ke Huy Quan. Part of his appeal comes from the flexibility of animation for him, as you can see in the pH๏τo above of storyboard animators turning him into part of a bow for an archery compeтιтion. But much of it is also due to the casting of Quan himself.

“He’s charming, he’s so genuine, he’s a sweet character, and we get so much of that from Ke’s performance and the writing,” Head of Animation Chad Sellers said. “But,” Sellers continued, speaking of Gary’s villainous potential, “also, when we need to push him in a different direction, we’re able to. It’s just a balancing act.”

Yvett Merino also praised Quan’s performance, saying, “Having Ke voice it, and having this character design come together, is one of those times where the character and the voice are just a perfect, perfect match. That’s happened a few times before, but it really did on this one.”

Some of the filmmakers even got in on the recording action, revealed story supervisor David VanTuyle: “I have a soft spot in my heart for the walrus because I play the voice of the walrus. It’s lots of ‘Hey, bub’s. It started as a temporary voice, and then it just ended up happening.”

Everybody Loves Mayor Winddancer

While many of the Disney creatives revealed Gary is a hard character to beat, a near-unanimous love for the new mayor of Zootopia, the stallion Mayor Winddancer, was expressed. “He really popped off the paper right away,” Chad Sellers said, “Everybody was like, ‘I know who this guy needs to be: Action star, leading man in a romance novel.”

The inspiration behind the character was revealed to be Fabio, the Italian model and actor who became known to a certain generation as a dependable early 2000s comedy cameo (Fabio appeared in Dude, Where’s My Car? in 2000 and Zoolander and Bubble Boy in 2001 alone). But to voice Mayor Winddancer, the filmmakers turned to Disney veteran Patrick Warburton.

Warburton has already appeared in beloved Disney projects, notably voicing Kronk in 2000’s The Emperor’s New Groove, and has been a staple of the Family Guy cast since 1999. “I absolutely love Patrick,” Carrie Liao said. “That’s the perfect match of character and voice.”

As for what to expect from Mayor Winddancer, Liao called him “an extra layer of ridiculousness” in the world of Zootopia, saying, “Seeing this larger-than-life horse character being drawn into this mystery has been really great.”

Director Byron Howard agreed on all of the above, saying, “Winddancer has made a big splash in my world and in the world of people who have seen the movie. He is very, very special in many ways.”

As is Warburton, Howard said: “He came in to record for us, and I was a big fan of The Emperor’s New Groove and Kronk, but to actually meet him in person and see how much he threw himself into the horsiness of the role [was great].”

Why Is Zootopia Getting A Sequel In 2025?

Inside Out 2 arrived in theaters nine years after the first movie was released and became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time. Interestingly, Zootopia 2 will arrive in theaters nine years after Zootopia released–but that’s (probably) not the result of Disney unlocking a secret mystical power behind the number nine.

“There’s no sort of set formula, I’d say, as we look to the future and figure out what stories we’re going to tell next,” Jared Bush said, adding, “It really comes from filmmaker pᴀssion.”

The director continued to say, “I’d say we’re really lucky that we’re surrounded by very brilliant people who want to create things, and sometimes they want to create something that’s a wholesale original new story. And sometimes, like us [with] this movie, we love this world.”

“I think people sometimes misunderstand why we would do this,” Bush said. “We love it. There’s no sort of edict of ‘sequel, not sequel.’ I think we’ve been dying to get back into this world and continue these stories for a very long time, and that’s really, really fun.”

And Zootopia 2 doesn’t mark the end of Disney’s willingness to foster new IP. “As we’re stepping into the future,” Bush added, “we’re always going to need original stories … [but] I think, right now, there is a nostalgia factor and there is something where audiences are saying, ‘Hey, we want to spend time with these characters that we love.’”

That was a sentiment expressed by the filmmakers–even if some of the characters are behind the camera. “Working with them, to me, is a little bit like coming home,” Yvett Merino said, “because we’ve done so many films together.”