When the first Zootopia hit theaters in 2016, it turned out to be more than an animated menagerie about predator and prey sharing a city peacefully. It was stealth social commentary about bias, belonging, and who gets to feel safe. Zootopia 2 dials that up with more humor, more banter, and another timely message. And the directors and cast talk about what it means to carry the franchise’s legacy forward.
Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are a new rookie cop duo whose partnership proved to work despite their personality and animalistic differences. When Chief Bogo sends them on a make-or-break mission, the duo is forced undercover into corners of the city they’ve never explored, pushing their still-evolving partnership in ways they didn’t expect. As they follow the clues, Judy and Nick find themselves caught in a larger mystery surrounding the reptiles on Zootopia’s outskirts like Marsh Market. But they soon discover that his case is bigger than what it seems and it tests not just their instincts and the trust they’ve built since the first film.
When it came to returning to the world of Zootopia, Jason Bateman, who voices sly con fox Nick Wilde, and Ginnifer Goodwin, who voices relentlessly optimistic bunny cop Judy Hopps, about returning for Zootpia 2. “I just remember hearing that it’s time, they’re ready to do Zootopia 2, and I was just so excited to get another shot,” Jason Bateman
“It’s my favorite job I’ve ever had, so the opportunity to do it again and make it, hopefully, better — or at least grow and change — there’s nothing more fulfilling than this,” Ginnifer Goodwin added.
As actors and comedians, Ke Huy Quan, who voices Gary De Snake, and Fortune Feimster are used to thinking on their feet in the recording booth, constantly playing with delivery and character. I asked if there was a moment or even a single line in the script that unlocked something new about their characters, something they hadn’t fully seen until they were deep into the process.
“For me, it was the line that Gary says over and over again, ‘We will succeed. Judy Hopps, we will succeed.’ And really gives an insight into how being a pit viper, a poisonous pit viper, is not easy,” Quan noted about his character. “You know, he scares people everywhere he goes, but yet he’s still… able to remain positive and hopeful and optimistic and all of that.”
I knew my character would be kind of ridiculous and over the top when she was like, yeah, it takes a threesome to be some four-way to bust your doorway,” Feimster added. “I kind of that kind of language. I was like, All right, we’re gonna be silly here.”
In our discussions with directors Bryon Howard and Jared Bush, along with producer Yvette Moreno, our interview delved deeper into Zootopia 2′s social commentary and how it ties into the evolution of the city and its impact on the citizens of the titular city, where predator and prey peacefully coexist.
Howard says what he loves most about the sequel is that it’s ultimately about relationships and the ways differences shape them. “We really figured out that we needed to kind of see [Judy and Nick] as a brand new team,” he explains, with their contrasting personalities pushing the story forward rather than just decorating it. That idea extends to Gary and his family as well, turning the film into a story about how those differences may look like obstacles at first, but ultimately “really make us stronger.”
When asked about how the sequel leans into social commentary that takes from a long history of displacement, Bush explains. “We did a lot of research through a number of years in a number of different places around the world,” he explains. “Marsh Market is a place that finds itself in danger of being changed, and something we found is that throughout human history, this is a pattern that continues to happen. So I’d say, as opposed to being based on one specific event, we find that there’s a tendency for us to change things without really thinking it.”
Zootopia 2 opens in theaters on November 26, 2025.
