Trolls 2 set for release in 2020

1 March 2017

'Trolls 2' is set for release in three years' time.

Justin Timberlake

Universal and DreamWorks Animation's popular fantasy-adventure film proved such a hit at the box office - raking in $339.5 million - last year that movie executives have decided to make a sequel and have confirmed it'll hit the big screen on April 10, 2020.

Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake will reprise their roles as the eternal optimist Poppy and the curmudgeon Branch, respectively, in the new musical comedy-adventure but it's believed that the director Mike Mitchell will not be returning to take hold of the reins because he has already filled his schedule by signing up to direct Warner Bros' sequel to 'The Lego Movie', which has a release date of February 8, 2019, according to Variety.

As well as being a huge hit with film critics, the soundtrack has also been heavily praised as Justin's song 'Can't Stop The Feeling' received an Oscar nomination.

However, although he didn't win the gong at the ceremony last weekend, Justin recently admitted that he was worried that he and co-writers Max Martin and Karl Johan Schuster wouldn't be able to pen a track that would work for the animated characters.

He said: "This has to work for the moment, these characters, and be filmic. It took a second to crack the code. I remember thinking, 'We're not gonna be able to do this.'

"This wasn't just like writing a song for a movie - it was writing a song for characters that are going to sing it in the movie.

"That part had to work, and that's the part that made it a task that none of us had ever done. And we had to push ourselves to do something that works in that way."

But once they got started, the trio discovered knew that they could pull it off.

He explained: "Once we got the hook going, that's usually how it goes. Once you get the hook you can base everything off that."