Even though the first trailer for Frozen 3 hasn’t been shown to the public yet, Disney’s D23 Entertainment Showcase revealed some of the biggest news about the upcoming film: Anna and Kristoff’s wedding, Olaf’s new love interest, Samantha, and the film’s brand-new villain, an Ice Queen with similar powers to Elsa’s. Arendelle will never be the same again.
The first teaser at D23 had the audience laughing and cheering until the film’s villain introduction. The clip showed the sisters following an icy butterfly to a portal into a new frozen world.
A mysterious figure crashes Anna and Kristoff’s wedding and immediately shows off her icy powers as she descends icy stairs, moving towards the sisters. “We finally meet,” she says, introducing herself to the group before Elsa moves forward to protect her friends from the unwanted guest. The moment is met with gasps from the crowd.
Idina Menzel, who voices Elsa, has described the new figure as more dangerous than anything the group has faced before. And it’s going to take more than a single film to bring her down. The story from Frozen 3 will continue in Frozen 4, which are both in development and being built together.
The new footage had barely ended before a new theory took over the fandom: Disney might have created the new character based on scrapped designs and concepts from the original film, especially since Elsa was meant to become a villain in the original story. See, in early drafts of the film, Elsa wasn’t Anna’s sister, but a cold-hearted villain modelled after The Snow Queen in Hans Christian Andersen’s book.
A few years ago, concept artist and animator Claire Keane showed off some of the scrapped designs online, showing Elsa with blue skin, spiky short blue hair and a mink coat, a look fans say lines up closely with the mysterious figure introduced in the Frozen 3 teaser.
In that early script, Evil Elsa actually built a small army of snow monsters and kidnapped Anna from her own wedding. That story didn’t move forward with Disney. Instead, it was replaced with a story about sisterhood after the filmmakers heard the song “Let It Go” and decided that Elsa was actually way too sympathetic to work as the film’s villain. They decided on the Hans villain twist instead.
Still, the Evil Elsa must have made an impression on the creators too. It seems she is back in a slightly different form in Frozen 3. Some are guessing that it could be a long-lost aunt or a multiverse version of Elsa, maybe one manifestation of the twisted memories Grand Pabbie once pulled from a young Anna’s mind.
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The second theory actually makes a lot of sense, especially since the new character mockingly sneers, “Look what the Northern Lights dragged in.” As we know, the Northern Lights tie directly to the magic trolls who altered Anna’s memories.
Meanwhile, Olaf has found a new love interest in Frozen 3: Samantha. Josh Gad debuted a new song, “Ooooh, Samantha,” that points to a full romantic subplot.
The full voice cast returns for the new sequel: Bell as Anna, Menzel as Elsa, Jonathan Groff as Kristoff, Gad as Olaf, and Sven alongside them. Jennifer Lee, who has written every Frozen film, returns to script Frozen 3 and is co-directing alongside Trent Correy. Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, who composed the songs for the first two films, are back as well.
Disney clearly has high hopes for the upcoming release. And why shouldn’t they? The first film earned $1.3 billion worldwide and won two Oscars, including Best Animated Feature. While the second film didn’t win as much critical acclaim, Frozen 2 did pull in $1.45 billion at the box office. When you do the math, that’s $2.76 billion between the first two. Disney clearly wants to continue that Frozen magic.
Frozen 3 arrives in theaters November 24, 2027, keeping the franchise’s Thanksgiving release tradition.
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