The Angry Birds Movie didn’t exactly sound like a solid bet going into this summer. It was a cartoon based on a mobile phone video game - one which peaked in popularity a couple of years ago. Not to mention, the gameplay of the original game - birds slingshotting themselves into pigs, over and over again - didn't exactly seem conducive to a feature film story.

Then The Angry Birds Movie opened to a surprisingly decent response - though not an over-enthused one (read Screen Rant's review for case in point). The film earned more than $100 million at the U.S. box office and some $347 million total worldwide, performing well in a year that has been unusually crowded with high-quality animated releases, from Finding Dory to Zootopia to The Secret Life of Pets. Now, we can prepare for even more Angry Birds.

Rovio Entertainment, the Finnish company that created Angry Birds, is now officially developing a followup to The Angry Birds Movie. The WSJ has the exclusive on the news, with Rovio CEO Kati Levoranta quoted as having said “We have started planning the sequel to The Angry Birds Movie.” For the time being however, no other official details about The Angry Birds Movies 2 (including, its actual title) have been made available.

Rovio, known primarily as a gaming software company, has struggled in recent years to replicate the success of its worldwide hit game, which debuted in 2009. There have even been significant layoffs at the company as a result. As the first movie was a big, worldwide cash cow for them, more Angry Birds movies are something of a no-brainer.

The Angry Birds film (arguably) boasts solid animation, a top-flight voice cast (led by Jason Sudeikis, Bill Hader and Josh Gad) and a clever use of the video game’s slingshot gimmick in the third act. Thus, there's little reason to think there isn’t enough room in this universe for another movie or two. There are a lot of characters and there’s plenty of room for creativity with the existing elements (for example: will we have the pigs trying for revenge?) in the sequel.

Then again, as there were nearly four years between the announcement of the first Angry Birds movie and its actual release, the arrival of a second Angry Birds movie will be even further removed from the time of the original gaming property's biggest success. Hence, it remains to be seen how much interest there still is once the actual Angry Birds Movie sequel makes it way into theaters.

NEXT: Pokémon Live-Action Movie Finds Its Writers

We'll bring you more information on The Angry Birds Movie 2 as it becomes available.

Source: WSJ