The new documentary series that looks at the making of Frozen II is a must watch for fans of the film. Even though the series only covers rgw last year of production, it shows how a remarkable amount of the total film was only really understood in that time. We see "Show Yourself" completely change as a song and what it means in the film, but we also see songs cut from the movie entirely, including one that was going to showcase Sterling K. Brown.
Sterling K. Brown had spoken about the fact that singing was part of his audition for Frozen II and that, at one point, he was going to have a song in the film, but Into the Unknown: Making Frozen 2 actually shows us the moment when Brown himself was made aware that his song, "See the Sky" was out of the movie, and it's sort of heartbreaking. Brown is clearly really upset, those there's always a light of hope. Maybe in another sequel? Brown said...
I was gonna sing a song. I sang for the audition. My song got cut. Maybe in Frozen III. You trust that Jen and Chris have an overall vision for what the story needs to be, and if it didn’t fit in the story that they’re now telling you’re like ‘ok, it didn’t fit in the story.’ But you mourn. You’re like ‘oh, that was always fun.’ And then they come up with something else that’s really, really, fun.
In the documentary, we see Sterling K. Brown going in to record some dialogue for Frozen II, and he notices that nobody mentions working on his song. When he brings it up, he's given the bad news. Brown literally says he mourned his song. He gets that sometimes the movie changes and the song no longer fit, but that doesn't make any of it any easier.
It's far from uncommon for songs to be added and cut during the production of an animated film. Several of the unused songs in Frozen II were released on the soundtrack, though this particular song was not. What's interesting from watching Into the Unknown is seeing that "See the Sky" was actually a somewhat late addition to the film, before being cut out. It looks like Sterling K. Brown singing in the audition was just done to make sure he could if and when that was needed. It doesn't appear the character of Lieutenant Mattias was set to sing early on.
As far as the odds of a Frozen 3 actually happening? In a recent press conference around the release of the new Disney+ documentary, it was made clear that there has been zero discussion of another movie. When somebody happened to joke about a third movie you could see writer/director Jennifer Lee have a mild heart attack at the idea, or the idea of a bunch of press writing about a third movie being in the works.
Still, Frozen II saw the great Jonathan Groff get a song worthy of his talents after being largely left out of the first movie's music, so if there was going to be a Frozen III, hopefully the great Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez will do the same courtesy for Sterling K. Brown.
