{"id":506025,"date":"2026-03-05T22:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/506025\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T22:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:26:10","slug":"the-wild-robot-escapes-movie-is-happening-sets-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/506025\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wild Robot Escapes Movie Is Happening, Sets Director"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Wild Robot\u201d<\/a> will return.<\/p>\n

DreamWorks Animation is developing the sequel \u201cThe Wild Robot Escapes,\u201d based on the second book in the popular series by author Peter Brown, and TheWrap can exclusively reveal that Troy Quane, one of the directors behind the Oscar-nominated \u201cNimona,\u201d will take over directing duties from Chris Sanders. <\/p>\n

Heidi Jo Gilbert, who worked as head of story on the first film, will serve as co-director. <\/p>\n

Producer Jeff Hermann will return, and Sanders will write the screenplay for the new installment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Wild Robot,\u201d released in 2024, was heralded for its painterly animation style and emotional depth. It marked Sanders\u2019 return to animation after more than a decade away and was widely celebrated. The film, which starred Lupita Nyong\u2019o as a high-tech robot named Roz who washes onto an island populated only by animals, grossed $320 million globally and secured three Oscar nominations, including best animated feature, along with three BAFTA nominations.<\/p>\n

It was awarded Best Animated Feature by the Critics\u2019 Choice Awards and won nine Annie Award from ASIFA-Hollywood, four Visual Effects Society awards, the Producer Guild Award for Best Animated Feature, along with nearly \u201c100 additional awards from film industry guilds, critic groups, and film festivals around the world,\u201d according to DreamWorks Animation. It was also our #1 animated movie<\/a> of that year.<\/p>\n

In Brown\u2019s \u201cThe Wild Robot Escapes,\u201d the second book in Brown\u2019s trilogy, Roz and her bird-son Brightbill try to escape a dairy farm and return to their island.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a huge surprise that Sanders is not returning for \u201cThe Wild Robot 2,\u201d considering his films \u201cLilo & Stitch\u201d and \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon\u201d (made with his frequent partner Dean DeBlois) and \u201cThe Croods\u201d (made with the great Kirk DeMicco) all inspired sequels that Sanders did not return to direct. He is currently set to write the live-action sequel to last year\u2019s \u201cLilo & Stitch\u201d for Disney, with the possibility that he\u2019ll also direct.<\/p>\n

Quane, who had been at DreamWorks developing an original project, had served tours of duty at Disney (working on \u201cEnchanted\u201d), Sony Pictures Animation (\u201cHotel Transylvania,\u201d \u201cSmurfs: The Lost Village\u201d) and Blue Sky Studios (\u201cThe Peanuts Movie,\u201d \u201cIce Age\u201d). When Blue Sky Studios, owned by 20th Century Fox, was sold to Disney alongside the other 21st Century assets, the Blue Sky version of \u201cNimona\u201d was unceremoniously canceled. It was later revived by Annapurna Pictures and Netflix and released in the summer of 2023.<\/p>\n

Gilbert, an animation veteran and one of the most exciting voices at DreamWorks Animation, has previously done storyboarding work for Disney, Pixar and Nickelodeon. Before serving as Head of Story on \u201cThe Wild Robot,\u201d she also served in the same role on \u201cPuss in Boots: The Last Wish,\u201d working alongside director Joel Crawford. (She had worked as a story artist on Crawford\u2019s \u201cThe Croods: A New Age,\u201d a sequel to Sanders and DeMicco\u2019s film.)<\/p>\n

At DreamWorks, Gilbert also worked as a story artist on \u201cRuby Gillman: Teenage Kraken\u201d and \u201cTurbo.\u201d She received an Annie Award nomination for her work on DreamWorks\u2019 series \u201cDragons: Riders of Berk.\u201d<\/p>\n

No release date has been set for \u201cThe Wild Robot Escapes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"chris-sanders-wild-robot\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Wild Robot\u201d will return. DreamWorks Animation is developing the sequel \u201cThe Wild Robot Escapes,\u201d based on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[26614,29120,88,230169,206,230170,230171],"class_list":["post-506025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-chris-sanders","tag-dreamworks-animation","tag-entertainment","tag-heidi-jo-gilbert","tag-movies","tag-the-wild-robot-escapes","tag-troy-quane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}