The continuation of the story of Moana will not be the subject of a series on Disney+, but of a film, and this will be showing in cinemas from November 2024.
It was the CEO of the Walt Disney Company, Bob Iger, who made the surprise announcement on Wednesday, while Disney released a teaser for the upcoming film.
“It was originally developed as a series, but we were impressed with what we saw and knew it deserved a theatrical release,” he said during a conference call discussing the financial results of the company. His comments were reported on the CNBC website.
The first movie Moanareleased in 2016, tells the story of a strong female character who undertakes a quest to save her people in Polynesia. Moana had grossed over US$680 million at the worldwide box office and several positive reviews. This is far from the 1.45 billion generated by the champion in draws – Frozen 2 – but Moana still ranks among the top 15 highest-grossing films for Disney.
Disney animation studios are struggling to recover from COVID-19, CNBC recalls : since 2019, no animated film from Walt Disney Animation or Pixar has generated more than 480 million at the box office. This would be partly attributable to the creative resources the company has deployed into its Disney+ streaming service.
Moana 2 will be released approximately 6 months later Upside Down 2the sequel to another Disney success which won the Oscar for best animated film in 2016.