SALT LAKE CITY — Marketing for “Frozen 2” has been fairly mysterious so far, but Disney Animation chief and co-director Jennifer Lee offered a few new details at the D23 Expo on Aug. 24.
Polygon reports the sequel will explore how Elsa (Idina Menzel) received her ice-based magic powers. Part of this journey will explore Elsa and Anna’s (Kristen Bell) relationship with their mother, Queen Iduna (Evan Rachel Wood), who appeared in an exclusive scene shown at the D23 Walt Disney Studios panel.
“In these Disney films, we tend to kill off the parents,” said co-director Chris Buck. “But guess what — we’re bringing them back!”
Lee also said the movie’s plot will see the main characters explore an enchanted forest, where they run into lost soldiers and mysterious voices. Entertainment Weekly reports the forest serves as a location where the characters’ relationships from the first movie will be strained.
“Relationships are tested, everything you thought you knew proves to be wrong, powers that were once too strong for the world are suddenly not enough, and it’s easy to get lost,” Lee said.
Additionally, despite “Frozen” and its upcoming sequel focusing on Anna’s romantic life, “Frozen 2” has no plans to cover similar ground for Elsa. Songwriter Kristen Anderson-Lopez told IGN that the filmmakers didn’t see any need to introduce a romantic interest for the character.
“There’s so many movies that define a woman by her romantic interest. That’s not a story that we wanted to tell at this point in time,” Anderson-Lopez said. “What we really wanted to tell was if you have these powers, how do you grow and change and find your place in the world and find answers that haven’t been found before?”
Lee previously told HuffPost in 2018 that she was aware of fan interest in seeing Elsa receive a girlfriend — sparked in part because of the popularity of “Let it Go” with LGBTQ audiences.
“I love everything people are saying (and) people are thinking about with our film ― that it’s creating dialogue, that Elsa is this wonderful character that speaks to so many people,” Lee said. “It means the world to us that we’re part of these conversations.”
“Frozen 2” releases in theaters on Nov. 22.