For Olaf voice actor Josh Gad, FROZEN 3 needed more than snow, songs and nostalgia to justify another trip to Arendelle.
“I think we’re all relieved to be recording this now and getting a sneak preview at this story and realizing this has a reason to exist, and it’s really exciting,” Gad told Fandango correspondent Zuri Hall at D23.
Gad joined Anna voice actress Kristen Bell and Elsa voice actress Idina Menzel for the Fandango interview, which arrived days after Disney unveiled its first FROZEN 3 footage. The trio has begun recording and, by Gad’s account, gained an early look at a story that persuaded them Arendelle still had somewhere meaningful to go.
The cast did not take that for granted. Gad said they had openly asked whether a third movie was necessary and, if so, why.
The answer begins with a wedding. Anna and Kristoff’s long-awaited marriage opens FROZEN 3, but the celebration also changes the sisters’ family equation: Kristoff becomes Elsa’s brother-in-law, while Anna and Elsa must reconsider their promise to remain each other’s first priority.
That gives the fantasy a wonderfully ordinary question. How do close relatives make room for marriage without treating love like a competition? The characters are older, their family is changing and the adventure grows out of that change rather than ignoring it.
Related: The Biggest News from Disney’s D23 Event—Including an Exciting FROZEN Update
The wedding will not stay peaceful for long. Footage screened at D23 showed Elsa studying a mysterious stone that appears to open a portal into a far colder realm, sending the group away from Arendelle and toward a fresh threat.
The Hollywood Reporter described the new villain as crashing the royal wedding before confronting the sisters in an icy forest. The cast told Fandango that the villain is a woman and that Elsa may finally have met her match.
Olaf will face a different kind of challenge. Gad teased that the snowman is discovering love, complications and all, while Disney’s official D23 recap revealed the name of his first crush, Samantha, and the new love song “Ooooh, Samantha.”
Academy Award®-winning songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez wrote that number and a new version of “Frozen Heart.” The official recap also confirmed that Academy Award®-winning director Jennifer Lee and director Trent Correy will direct the movie, with producer Christina Chen producing.
Yet Gad believes the franchise’s “magic sauce” remains simpler than portals, powers or earworm songs. He pointed to Anna and Elsa’s bond.
“Two sisters who love each other so fully that they are willing to do anything for that,” Gad said.
“I see it in my girls. I see them relating to these characters and wanting to live up to what you guys put out there,” he added.
Audiences have already embraced that relationship on a massive scale. Variety reported that FROZEN earned $1.3 billion worldwide, while FROZEN 2 reached $1.45 billion.
Those numbers can explain why Disney wants another sequel; they cannot make that sequel worth a family’s time. Gad’s relief suggests the cast knows the difference. FROZEN 3 opens in theaters Nov. 24, 2027.
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