Hotel Transylvania 2 had a very healthy weekend at the box office - healthy enough to already start getting the gears moving on a Hotel Transylvania 3. But while a second sequel is in the works, it seems that the project will not involve one of the franchise's key players: director Genndy Tartakovsky.
The filmmaker has revealed to The Wrap that while he fully expects Sony Pictures Animation to continue making Hotel Transylvania titles, he won't be seated at the helm. Discussing the future of the series and his own career, Tartakovsky revealed,
Hotel Transylvania 3 is going to happen without me. Two is enough. I have a lot of other ideas, and I kind of have to express them and have them come out.
This is definitely an interesting development, and there's two very key reasons. The first is the immense success that Hotel Transylvania 2 is experiencing. In its first three days, the animated monster movie broke a September opening weekend record, bringing in an impressive $48.4 million here in the United States. Including that total with today's numbers, as well as the money that it's brought in from abroad, and the worldwide gross comes to an $80 million total. If a movie is able to reach that kind of high, why would a director want to leave it behind?
The answer to that question may be tied into the second of the key reasons why this is a curious story. After spending years developing a brand new Popeye movie at Sony Pictures Animation, it was revealed earlier this year that he was dropping the project - specifically citing creative differences with the studio. Now that Hotel Transylvania 2 is out in theaters, it's possible that Tartakovsky is interested in distancing himself from the company.
Before getting into feature films, the Russian-born American filmmaker used to be a major player on Cartoon Network, and wrote and created some of the most notable shows they've ever aired. His career really took off in the mid-90s when he created Dexter's Laboratory, but he also later created Samurai Jack and was a significant contributor to the Star Wars: Clone Wars show. While it would certainly would be great to see him continue to develop feature projects, surely his return to the small screen would be warmly welcomed.
If Hotel Transylvania 2 is moving forward, we have to assume that it's massive ensemble of stars - including but not limited to Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, and Keegan-Michael Key - are coming back as well. It's also very likely that Sony was preparing for the sequel to be a hit, and has had Hotel Transylvania 3 in the hopper for a while - meaning that the window between the sequels might be shorter than the three year gap between the first Hotel Transylvania and its follow-up.
