Frozen 2 Adding Evan Rachel Wood & Sterling K. Brown to Cast

Screen Rant

By Sandy Schaefer

Published Jul 13, 2018

Evan Rachel Wood and Sterling K. Brown are in talks to join the returning voice cast in Disney's upcoming animated movie sequel, Frozen 2.

Evan Rachel Wood and Sterling K. Brown are in talks to join the voice cast of Disney's animated musical movie sequel, Frozen 2. Assuming they sign on, the Westworld and This Is Us actors will be accompanied by returning cast members from the first Frozen, which include Kristen Bell as Princess Anna of Arendelle, Idina Menzel as Arendelle's magically-powered queen and Anna's sister Elsa, and Josh Gad as the pair's enchanted snowman pal Olaf.

Released in 2013, the original Frozen was loosely inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen and went on to become an enormous success for the Mouse House, grossing $1.27 billion at the worldwide box office and earning two Oscars (including, Best Animated Feature) for its efforts. A sequel has long seemed like a foregone conclusion for those reasons, even as the Mouse House has gone about expanding the Frozen brand to encompass everything from animated short spinoffs to a Broadway musical adaptation. Nevertheless, Frozen 2 proper is now moving forward and putting together its voice cast, ahead of its release next year.

Variety is reporting that Wood and Brown are lining up to join the Frozen 2 voice cast, though their roles are being kept under-wraps for the time being. The pair only just picked up 2018 Primetime Emmy nominations for their work on the latest seasons of Westworld and This Is Us, with Brown landing an additional Emmy nod for his guest appearance on the Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode "The Box". Given their status, it's reasonable to assume the pair's Frozen 2 voice roles will be significant and possibly leading in nature.

Frozen directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee are also returning for the sequel, with Lee writing the screenplay (like she did on the first movie). The latter was recently promoted to Chief Creative Officer at Walt Disney Animation Studios, following longtime Disney/Pixar CCO John Lasseter's departure at the end of the year. Lee also cowrote Disney and Ava DuVernay's A Wrinkle in Time (which opened in theaters earlier this year) and is expected to remain active writing and directing for Disney Animation, even after she becomes CCO.

Frozen fever (no pun intended) has died down a bit since its heyday, but things will no doubt heat up (apologies again) once marketing for Frozen 2 gets started. That should happen by either this November or December, when the Disney sequels Ralph Breaks the Internet and Mary Poppins Returns hit the scene. Either of those films seem like perfect vehicles to launch a Frozen 2 teaser trailer with and the Mouse House is almost certainly thinking the same thing. In the meantime, it's nice to learn that great talents like Brown and Wood are signing up for the next journey to Arendelle.