With the original now past $403.2 million at the worldwide box office, no one should be all that surprised that Illumination Entertainment is throwing the switches to greenlight a sequel to this summer's The Secret Life Of Pets.
The film, which saw a plucky dog trying to get rid of his annoying new fellow pooch and finding himself on an adventure around the streets of New York (which included a run-in with a bunny who has big vengeful ideas about humans who abandon animals), has been a success for the company and distributors Universal, and is now forming the second big franchise for the animation studio after the Despicable Me films, which also spawned their own spin-off with Minions.
Nothing is yet known about what will happen in the new film, bur Chris Renaud is back to direct and Brian Lynch is once more writing the script. Two years seems like a fast turnaround for an animated movie, especially when you consider that the likes of Disney and Pixar pour between four and five years into theirs, but then we'd guess this one has already been in the works for a while. We'd expect the likes of Louis C.K., Jenny Slate and Eric Stonestreet to return for voice duties, with the addition of a few new names. It'll arrive (in the States, at least) on July 13 of 2018.
Illumination's next movie is Sing, due here on January 27 next year.