The first Frozen 2 teaser trailer just came out and ... wow. It didn't reveal much about the plot, we didn't hear any of the new songs, and we didn't even hear any of the characters' voices. It was darker and bolder than expected, suggesting a surprising new direction for the extremely popular franchise.
Sometimes less is indeed more, and the Frozen 2 trailer gave us a lot to work with. So CinemaBlend rose to the challenge, with Dirk Libbey and Gina Carbone speculating through the waves, winds, fires, and snowflakes -- revealing what they hope the mysterious movie will be about...
Dirk Libbey: I love the way a trailer can be two minutes long and basically tell you nothing. We get a lot of cool shots, but without any context they just don't mean anything. Still, I get the feeling this will be something of a "road movie." Shots near the end that show them walking together and staring out over beautiful scenery together seem to imply they're going someplace, which is cool, because expanding the world beyond Arendelle is a nice idea.
Gina Carbone: If I had to imagine what the first Frozen 2 trailer would look like, this is not it. But that's a compliment. It would've been easy to give us something cute and funny. This is anything but cute and funny. It's intense, very dark, darn near frightening, and even ends with Anna grabbing a sword and slicing at the screen. I love that this gives us clues and mysteries, and fodder for speculation. I hope Disney doesn't follow this with a more typical trailer. Don't even preview the new songs!
Dirk: I keep going back to the shot of Anna surrounded by those odd crystals. She clearly isn't happy to see them, and the design shows up in the new poster as well, so we know they're important. They could be ice, which might mean they're a new aspect of Elsa's powers manifesting. Could we be seeing a story where Elsa is going someplace to learn about the origin of power in order to better control it? The first movie just sort of hand-waved it all away, "it's magic, don't worry about it."
Gina: I think she's surprised more than anything, like what is this stuff? The poster shows four different designs on the snowflakes. I like the theory that they represent the four seasons, and perhaps four different powers -- like Elsa with ice/winter. If so, I don't know if those crystals by Anna represent Elsa or someone else. The trailer does show a few autumn scenes, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are people out there with powers like autumn wind, summer fire. (What would spring be - growth?) There's a shot in the trailer where it looks like Elsa might be protecting Olaf from fire or some kind of barrier. A fire counterpoint to Elsa's ice?
Dirk: That works. We see the shot with the pair of new characters has one of them being blown up into the air by an apparent gust of wind.
Gina: OK, speaking of the new characters, I'm calling it now - the new girl and boy in the autumn woods are Elsa and Anna's mom and dad in a flashback. Maybe Mom had an autumn wind power the way Elsa has a winter frost power? Or maybe not. But King Agnarr had blonde hair and Queen Iduna was a redhead like Anna. I like the idea of tying in that history, since it seems like there's unfinished business with the parents.
Dirk: Hmmm.... I feel like that would be a fairly big retcon to throw into the sequel. Like, isn't that the first thing you tell the trolls when Anna is sick? "Elsa was born with these powers, and also mom has them too." Still, I can't say the idea doesn't have a particular poetry to it. There's no denying there's something of a similarity between Anna and this new character. They certainly could be related. And the idea that some of what we see here could be flashback should certainly be considered.
Gina: I know some fans were wondering if the new characters could be Anna and Kristoff's kids. It seems like there must be a reason why that new girl looks so much like Anna. I like the parents idea more than the kids, but who knows yet. Both of the flashback/flashforward theories could be wrong. We know Evan Rachel Wood and Sterling K. Brown are voicing new characters, but not necessarily those characters. I'm excited to see what they bring. I'm also excited and curious for an explanation on the dark ocean opening. That's the sequence I keep going back to.
Dirk: That's part of why I think Elsa's own powers are at the center of this. I feel like she's testing herself there, maybe trying to accomplish some specific task with her abilities.
Gina: I like bonkers fan theories, so I like the idea that the parents are still alive out there (and connected to other Disney universes, because the wilder the theory, the better). Maybe this journey is to find them. That's probably too simplistic, but so be it. Since Elsa's powers were such a focus of the first movie, along with Anna finding herself and appreciating the true love of sisterhood, I like the idea of other characters also having powers. But of course Elsa's wintry powers would still be paramount in a movie called "Frozen." This is her world, we're just visitors!
Frozen 2 has several seasons to get through before arriving in theaters on November 22, 2019. That date is almost exactly six years after the premiere of Frozen in November 2013. Disney will almost certainly share more trailers and TV spots as the release date gets closer, along with an official synopsis that may pop holes in all of our hopes and theories. In the meantime, bookmark our 2019 movie release date calendar to keep up with everything both Disney and non-Disney heading to theaters this year.
