Tangled was a hit for Disney upon its release in 2010, but a decade later there's still no sign of Tangled 2. Will there ever be a sequel starring Rapunzel and Flynn, or will they be left to live happily ever after? Here's everything we know so far.
Directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, Tangled is based on the classic fairy tale Rapunzel, but expands the story of the princess with long hair locked away in a tower. Disney created the character of Flynn Rider, a roguish thief who stumbles upon Rapunzel's tower while running from some guards. The two strike a deal for Flynn to take Rapunzel to see the floating lanterns that appear on her birthday every year, and eventually they learn that Rapunzel is actually a long-lost princess whose parents have been searching for her ever since her disappearance.
Related: Tangled: What Happened To Rapunzel & Flynn After The Movie
Disney changed the title of the movie from Rapunzel to Tangled in order to give it wider appeal, and the move proved a success, with the film grossing almost $600 million at the box office. The studio used this success to create the marketing approach for Frozen (whose title was also changed from The Snow Queen), and landed another big hit. But while Tangled may have created a new blueprint for modern fairy tale movies, will its success ever lead to Tangled 2?
Tangled 2 Isn't Happening (Yet)
There's currently no word of Tangled 2 being in active development. Disney may be known for its many franchises, but big-screen sequels to Disney's animated movies are the exception. While there may have been a flurry of direct-to-video sequels to movies like Aladdin and The Lion King in the 1990s and 2000s, it's only recently that Disney has begun making theatrical sequels like Ralph Breaks The Internet and Frozen 2. Speaking to Den of Geek in 2015, producer Roy Conli revealed that "there was a desire to somehow take it into a filmic sequel. But the directors weren’t really interested in doing that." Why not? "Her hair was gone! There you go!"
Interestingly, Disney is developing a live-action movie about Rapunzel, which may or may not be based on Tangled. Disney has been focusing on live-action remakes of its classic animated movie in recent years, but it seems a little soon for a straightforward live-action remake of Tangled. We'll have to wait and see what comes of those plans.
Tangled 2 Release Date
If Tangled 2 does go into development, it would take several years for it to actually arrive in theaters. Tangled was first announced in 2003 under the title Rapunzel Unbraided, with a 2007 release planned, but it actually took seven years to make it to the big screen. In terms of Tangled 2, the production of Frozen 2 offers a rough time frame for how long it would take to make; that movie was announced in March 2015, and released in November 2019. So, even if Tangled 2 was announced this year, its release date would likely fall in 2024 or 2025.
Tangled 2 Story Details
As pointed out by Conli, Tangled ends with Flynn cutting off Rapunzel's hair in order to free her from Mother Gothel, which causes the hair to lose its magical qualities and turn brown. Disney actually made a sequel TV show, Tangled: The Series, which found a way around this ending by magically restoring Rapunzel's hair. The explanation for this was that the Sundrop Flower's magic still lives inside Rapunzel - which fits with her tear magically bringing Flynn back to life at the end of Tangled. Needless to say, it would be fairly straightforward to come up with a way for Rapunzel to regrow her hair for Tangled 2.
From there, the sequel could follow a similar path as Frozen 2 by digging into why exactly the Sundrop Flower is magical and introducing other magical elements, and it could dig into Flynn's past as well. Tangled: The Series revealed that he is actually the long-lost prince of another kingdom - and also that his birth name was Horace, not Eugene. Tangled 2 could be a direct adaptation of Tangled: The Series, or it could retcon the show's storyline out of existence (though that might not fit well with fans of the show). Another possibility is that it could pick up years after the events of Tangled and follow Flynn and Rapunzel's children instead, who may well end up inheriting their mother's magical hair.