DreamWorks Animation Cancels THE CROODS Sequel After Three Years of Work

After three and a half years of work on The Croods 2, DreamWorks Animation has killed the prehistoric sequel. Variety says that thirty animators will now be looking for new jobs, and they say that there's been some trouble brewing behind the scenes on the film since this summer, when its original 2017 release date was pushed back to 2018.

When Comcast bought DreamWorks Animation in April of this year, it put the hierarchy at Universal Studios in charge of the toon studio founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg. Individuals at both DreamWorks and Universal said doubts had been raised about proceeding with “Croods 2″ even before Universal was put in charge. Two sources said that Universal was effectively just ratifying a decision already made by DreamWorks Animation to kill the movie.

The first film ended up making $587 million worldwide on a $135 million budget, so on paper, it sounds like that'd be enough to get a sequel up and running. But do you know anyone who's ever mentioned wanting to see The Croods 2? It's not a film that captured the zeitgeist or had any sort of lasting impact on pop culture, and since it's been three years since the original, I can't imagine there's a huge groundswell of people who are still yearning to see more.

However, a source did tell Variety:

"‘The Croods’ is still very much in the DreamWorks catalog. It’s not unheard of that it might be something someone takes a look at in the future."

I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up making a kid's show for Netflix with these characters one day down the line. What do you think? Are you bummed about this news? Were you looking forward to The Croods 2?