Jennifer Lee talks FROZEN 3 at London Film Festival: A Breakdown of Her Comments And Potential Future With The Franchise

Earlier today at the London Film Festival, Jennifer Lee, the creator, writer, co-director and all-around FROZEN mastermind, broke her silence and commented on the already announced FROZEN 3 sequel while presenting clips of Disney’s upcoming animated film WISH. In an article this morning on DEADLINE, it was reported that Lee started off on a positive note, relaying:

“All I can say is that last week, they (the studio?) carved out time for me to work with the creative team on it (FROZEN 3). And I’m blow away”.

Lee was attending the festival as Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Studios Animation – her current position within the walls of the Disney company – and accordingly shepherding the much anticipated WISH, a film which Disney will pin most if not all of its holiday hopes upon.

I mention her current position, a top level executive for the studio and not technically a creative, because some of her ensuing comments, while extremely positive about the progress on FROZEN threequel so far, also hinted that she may be less involved with it than the previous two sequels. Lee was quoted in VARIETY as saying:

“I don’t know what I’m doing on it yet — I’m not doing nothing — except doing what I do now, which is we work on every project as as team and I’m in there with creative. But with ‘Frozen,’ just a little bit more.”

Now this is interesting because in No Scoops Club’s previous FROZEN 3 speculation blog, we discussed all of the possible storylines that might be featured in a third FROZEN film (which you can ready by clicking HERE) but in that blog we also discussed what Jennifer Lee’s involvement might be and how that might effect the sequel.

I do think it might be worth keeping an eye on any future announcements as this sounds like a situation where a “creative” or creative team (possibly and probably both a writer and director) is already working daily on the film while Lee is not directly involved on a day to day basis, but instead acts in a more executive capacity, checking in every week or month while the creatives hammer out the finer points of the story.

But in the case of FROZEN 3, I definitely think Jennifer Lee will be acting as a non-traditional executive, and in a much more creative producer capacity than she might on other Disney Animation films. Even she said she is doing “a little bit more” in the above quote, which makes me at least a little more excited than when I first read an abridged version of her comments (from DEADLINE) where it sounded like she was less involved.

It is also important to remember that her lessened involvement would not be because FROZEN 2 was not successful (it made 1.4 billion in a run that was arguably shortened due to the events of 2020) but rather because Lee has moved on to this new position, a position as essentially the head of Disney Animated Studio where her responsibilities are incredibly time consuming and might not be best used as a creative for a single project.

I think we also have to also remember that while Disney Animation does not release a ton of sequels, Pixar has. And in that capacity, Pixar has a history of moving on to new creative teams for sequels. FROZEN is not a Pixar franchise, but the two studios are both under the Disney tent and there is that certain Pixar precedent for sequels and specifically threequels, that you can see also being ported over to Walt Disney Animation Studios. Considering that Walt Disney Animation Studio rarely does sequels (FROZEN 2 and RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET being the exceptions, the latter of which had a new creative team) and has never done a threequel, this is truly into the unknown for the Frozen franchise.

Moreover, at Pixar, even though some creatives have stayed on for the first sequel (most notably John Lassiter for CARS 2 and Brad Bird for INCREDIBLES 2), all leave by the third. Lassiter was long gone as director by TOY STORY 3 and CARS 3, though he was involved in a story and producorial capacity for both – just like I think Jennifer Lee might be with FROZEN 3.

My only caveat is that Jennifer Lee seems so intrinsically tied to the characters of Anna and Elsa. I mean this franchise really is her baby (for lack of a better word). And I always through the that FROZEN had the makings of a great auteur’s trilogy like LORD OF THE RINGS, THE DARK KNIGHT or STAR WARS. I loved FROZEN 2 and thought it was the best sequel since EMPIRE STRIKES BACK – but like EMPIRE, its ending, while concluding a certain story arc, left more to explore for Anna, Elsa, and all others in and around Arendelle. And, to be honest, I guess I should remember that George Lucas was long gone from the director’s chair when RETURN OF THE JEDI rolled around (and frankly EMPIRE as well). So maybe this move of pulling in a new creative team and new voices WILL both energize and also help complete the FROZEN trilogy. OK I’m starting to feel more positive again.

We can actually start getting some clues about the future of the FROZEN franchise next week when the podcast FROZEN: FORCES OF NATURE premieres. I previewed that podcast HERE. And I’ll be back her to recap and break everything down when that drops on October 11th.