Disney launched its first D23 Brazil down in South America today, bringing its long-running blend of fan expo and massive rolling press conference to a brand new market. Disney is savvy enough to know they’ve got to bring at least a few tidbits of news to these things to keep fans/press engaged, and so they have, including the fact that Shakira, having finally settled her long-running battle with her mortal enemy Spain last year (and who’s up for three awards at next week’s Latin Grammys), will be returning for a role in the upcoming Zootopia 2. (She played musical gazelle Gazelle in the original film, which arrived in theaters in 2016.) In a message to fans, Shakira promised that she’d be bringing a new song for the sequel, which hits theaters in November 2025; her offering for the previous film, “Try Everything,” was nominated for a Grammy, and certified triple platinum.
Meanwhile, trailer hounds got a new look at Barry Jenkins’ Mufasa, emphasizing the more lighthearted side of the Lion King prequel. (For instance, showing it’s framed as a story told by Rafiki to Simba’s kid, with Billy Eichner, Seth Rogen, and John Kani reprising their roles from the 2019 movie.) If we’re being honest, we mostly got distracted while watching this one by the frequent jokes about whether the lions would, or would not, eat their various non-lion friends; it really highlighted the way both the animated original, and Jon Favreau’s Lion King, elide the whole “Our wise and benevolent king eats many of his subjects every day” aspect of the Circle Of Life.
Finally, Disney provided a new answer to the age-old question “What is Denis Leary up to these days?” by announcing a sixth Ice Age movie is now in the works. The studio showed off a video from Leary, Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah, and Simon Pegg announcing the revival of the series, which last got a main series-installment in 2016 with Collision Course. (A movie in which—and we’ll be honest, we’re going off the Wikipedia summary here—our prehistoric heroes save the earth by launching magnetic crystals into space with a volcano to deflect an asteroid that’s going to impact the Earth because it got blasted by an alien spaceship. Did you know the Ice Age franchise had aliens? It’s fun to learn.) Anyway, no word yet on when Ice Age 6 will land in theaters, but it’s currently in production.
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