With the success of Zootopia 2, directors Jared Bush and Byron Howard recently shared that Zootopia 3 is definitely a possibility and will likely hit theaters by 2030.
Possible Zootopia 3
Zootopia 2 had the biggest global opening for an animated film ever and was also the sixth-highest-grossing movie of the year worldwide in 2025. The film came nine years after the original, and Bush jokingly blamed the delay on his colleague in an online Q&A via social media platform Weibo:
Byron is lazy; he likes to take his time, he shared (per SINA), with Howard acknowledging: I do like to take it slow, but nine years was too long. We promise the next one won’t take that long.
Movieweb breaks down the question of what stage the third installment is currently in:
That’s a good question, replied Jared Bush. Byron and I really enjoy exploring and playing with a lot of creative ideas. And obviously we secretly put a lot of things in the ending of Zootopia 2, like the bird feather we saw, which we’re happy to think about, and it’s also exciting to think about what will happen to Judy and Nick next.
It typically takes us 4–5 years to make an animated film, but the first 2–3 years are spent exploring creative ideas. So, it takes about 3 years for a project to reach the stage where the script we’re working on is ready. Therefore, without specifying what we’re currently exploring, I would say: exploration itself is a wonderful thing because you can surprise yourself, and that’s important.
If it takes 4-5 years to create an animated film, this would place a third Zootopia installment debuting sometime in 2030. Bush recently discussed the success of the second film in a different interview, stating this about the future of Disney Animation:
It takes about five years to make one of our films, so we have to have ideas that we are so passionate about — ideas that we want to stick with as they’re going through all of their different iterations. I know what the next 10 years of Disney Animation looks like, and it’s really exciting. The variety is honestly spectacular, and it all comes from filmmaker passion.
In Zootopia 2, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde go undercover to solve the case of the mysterious reptile who arrives in Zootopia and turns the mammal metropolis upside down. Their growing partnership is tested like never before.
The Disney Parks have celebrated the second film in a big way with a load of offerings available for the new movie, like a limited-time macaron, a limited-time sipper, a ride overlay, and a new puppet show at Shanghai Disneyland, limited-time meet and greets, and last but not least, the new show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Zootopia: Better Zoogether.
Do you think a third Zootopia film will do as well as Zootopia 2? Let us know in the comments and on social media.
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