Disney’s Surprising Frozen 3 Announcement Was Apparently Even A Big Shock To The Movie's Songwriters

Disney’s Frozen is set to become a trilogy. If you’re wondering what tunes the Academy Award-winning songwriting duo behind “Let It Go” are getting stuck in your head… they are asking themselves the same question right now too. Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez just reacted to last month’s news about Frozen 3, and it turns out it was big surprise to the couple as well. 

The Lopez's latest project has them behind a musical romantic comedy starring Mae Whitman and Carlos Valdez called Up Here. While recently speaking about the Hulu series, the surprise announcement regarding Frozen 3 came up. Robert Lopez shared it was very much a shock to each of them as well before Kristen Anderson-Lopez said this: 

They told us, the day of, and a little bit about what they’re thinking. It got us very excited. Now, we have to let the wheels of Hollywood do what they do, but we were very excited with their ideas.

Bob Iger made the announcement in early February during Disney’s company’s quarterly earnings call that Frozen 3, along with another Toy Story and Zootopia sequels  are among the upcoming Disney movies. It’s clear that the next Frozen movie is in early development considering the movie series’ songwriters were not in the loop until the announcement was made. As the Lopez’s told Collider, they are apparently clued into the storyline Disney is going into the direction of, but otherwise, it sounds like they are not getting to work on the next Frozen songs just yet while Hollywood’s wheels turn. 

The Lopez’s got their start working with Disney Channel on the Bear in the Big Blue House, along with writing the songs for the Walt Disney World production of Finding Nemo - The Musical and 2011's Winnie the Pooh film before writing their biggest songs of all time with the 2013 Frozen soundtrack. They went on to win the distinction of Best Original Song for “Let It Go” after the song became the first song from a Disney animated musical to reach the top ten in the Billboard charts in nearly 20 years – since “Colors of the Wind” for 1995’s Pocahontas

It certainly feels like there could be more storyline to explore in a third Frozen movie, whether that be Elsa perhaps finding a love of her own or the sisters facing a larger villain. While few details have surfaced regarding who is involved with the movie, Kristen Bell, who plays Anna, already said she “would do it in a heartbeat,” and Elsa voice actress Idina Menzel has shown interest in doing another sequel as well.  

While we wait for more information about Frozen 3, we can look forward to Wish, the next Disney animated feature, this fall. The movie starring Ariana DeBose will be a musical that tells the origin story of the wishing star. Wish hits theaters on November 22. 

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.