If there's one thing Disney has shown in the past few years, it's that they're not a business that messes around when it comes to making money. If they know a property is well-made and popular with the public, they don't let it sit on the shelf until the copyright expires and the hype dies down: They do something with it.
That's why the company has been buying up and capitalizing on so many popular properties lately, and why we have a live-action version of a classic film coming out every year now. It's why movie theaters are full of Disney sequels, and Disney Channel and Disney plus are full of spinoff cartoons for kids.
If you look at Disney's list of top ten grossing animated films of all time, you can see the truth of this pattern. As of March 6, 2020, all of the top ten films either have or are sequels or remakes. There are two versions of The Lion King and two out of four Toy Story movies present. You also have both Frozen movies, both Finding Nemo movies, and the long-anticipated Incredibles sequel. That's nine out of ten films. The odd thing is, the only one we haven't mentioned has no sequels or spinoffs of any kind.
What film is it? Zootopia.
Number eight on the list of Disney's highest-grossing movies of all time, Zootopia earned $1,023,784,195. In 2016, it had the biggest opening weekend of any Disney Animation Studios movie ever, and it has also had the biggest opening of any March-released animated film to date. There was a lot of buzz around the film when it came out, and it was very popular with children and adults alike for a number of reasons.
Despite all of this, now, a few days after the movie's fourth birthday (March 4), there has been no news of any kind of sequel or spinoff series, and talk about it has sort of petered out.
Why Zootopia Deserves More
Zootopia was as popular and profitable as it was for a reason, and it wasn't just because it premiered at a lucky time. The film was a well-crafted, well-told original story with deep, rounded characters, a fascinating world, and an important message for modern kids (and adults too). Zootopia was such a fascinating universe: So fascinating that Shanghai Disneyland just began construction on a Zootopia World. The characters Judy and Nick were not only easy to root for, but also had a genuine, wholesome friendship that fans quickly became obsessed with.
Most importantly, though, Zootopia successfully did what every good animated movie should do: It took a complex concept of the modern world and broke it down within the story to make it easy for kids to digest and understand. Zootopia isn't just a good, interesting story: It's a blueprint to show kids how to be respectful to one another - especially when it comes to marginalized groups.
These little lessons come in small and large doses: We see Judy struggle and get told she isn't cut out to be a cop; We see Nick bullied because the other kids are scared of predators; We see the problems this causes in Nick and Judy's friendship; but best of all, we see how these characters handle these situations. For example, Judy explaining that anyone but another bunny calling a bunny "cute" is condescending is calm and rational, and probably a conversation that sounded familiar to many adult women and minorities.
There are no clearly black and white allegories to human life in the world of Zootopia. Judy's issues are similar to ones that women face on a daily basis, and there are instances where it seems clear that predators are analogous to people of color, but it's not cut and dry. This was actually one of the few complaints that some critics had about the film, but it's actually a good thing: Instead of trying to weave in human politics to this new world, the creators used the internal logic of their universe to create their own set of prejudices. This made these prejudices more real - and made it easier for kids to digest them without pre-exposure to politics getting in the way.
As of now, Disney hasn't done anything to even tease a Zootopia 2 or a Zootopia TV series, despite plenty of precedents, especially for the latter: Disney has made spinoff series for both Tangled and Big Hero 6, two films that, though they were popular, did not earn the company nearly as much money as Zootopia. (And with Disney Plus now entering the arena, a series like this would be more opportune than ever.)
This is especially shocking given that there is more setup at the end of the original movie for the characters and storylines to keep going than there was for Tangled. Nick and Judy being partners on the force leaves plenty of room for episodic fun: The show practically writes itself.
What It Would Look Like
Though talk has more or less died down by now, in the year or so following the movie, there were a lot of rumors and interviews about what more Zootopia would look like... including with the directors themselves. In an interview with Collider in 2016, Byron Howard and Rich Moore talked about some of their ideas:
"I’m particularly fond of Clawhauser," Howard said. "He’s funny. Nate Torrence, the guy who performs him, has such a richness... I would watch The Clawhauser Show, every week."
"Or you could do an Orange Is the New Black for Bellwether," Moore added. "That would be so cool... if there was another story where Judy has to go to Bellwether like Hannibal Lector."
Fans in online message boards and on fanfiction sites also expounded upon their own ideas of what they'd want a sequel to look like, many of which include expansions of the world into other groups of animals (like birds and amphibians), possible romantic tension between partners Nick and Judy, and a deeper look at the pair fighting crime while fixing other, unexplored prejudices within the animal world.
Why It Hasn't Happened Yet... And Rumors About When It Will
There could be several reasons why Zootopia hasn't seen any expansion yet. One possible explanation, as Howard mentioned in the same Collider interview, is that it's difficult to transition the high-quality, time-consuming animation process into a TV show. Disney could be worried that a show would lose both animation quality and storytelling quality in the transition, and therefore do more harm than good (much like the direct-to-VHS Disney sequels of the late 90s and early 2000s).
However, the more likely explanation is that we simply haven't waited long enough yet. Four years may seem like a long time, but in the grand scheme of moviemaking, it's not long at all: The immensely popular Frozen didn't even have a teaser trailer for a sequel until around four years after its release (though the sequel itself was confirmed much sooner). The universally beloved movie The Incredibles didn't get a sequel until a whopping 14 years after its original release, even with fans begging and pleading for years.
Luckily, it seems Zootopia fans may not need to be that patient. Though Disney has not confirmed anything as of yet, there have been rumors going around since 2019 that there will be not just one, but two sequels to the film. This was according to a video of actor Tommy Lister (Finnick) that a fan took at a meet and greet:
“I can tell you for sure I’m doing another Zootopia with Disney. We are doing three of them… We are the biggest film that Disney is producing. The last one was 240 million. This one I’m hearing will be 300 million."
The video has since been taken down, most likely by Disney, but fans speculate that the first of the two sequels may be one of the slotted "Untitled Disney Animation Studios" film slotted for release in 2021. Chances are looking up... but until an official announcement is made, all fans can do is dream.