It’s been almost ten years since we first met Dracula, his daughter Mavis and the wacky monster family in the original Hotel Transylvania movie. Since, Selena Gomez’s vampiress character has found love in Andy Samberg’s human Johnny, gotten married and had their own son amidst some fun ups and downs for the Draculas. The story will officially come to an end this summer with Hotel Transylvania: Transformania and wrap up their love story.
When CinemaBlend spoke to Hotel Transylvania: Transformania’s co-directors Derek Drymon and Jennifer Kluska, we talked about how Andy Samberg’s Johnny will have a more central role in the movie thanks to the film’s premise following his decision to become a monster in his own right and it goes terribly wrong. Kluska shared what’s next with Johnny with these words:
Johnny is this lovable ball of energy and positivity that came into Drac’s life in the first movie, and we sort of want to bring it all full circle and see where their relationship had gone over the course of these four movies and wrap that up. The idea that Johnny would become a monster and how he would take that Johnny personality that we love and put it on a monster body – that challenge and that physicality seemed really, really interesting.
A key relationship throughout Hotel Transylvania has been this oddball relationship between Drac and Johnny, as their differences often make for some hilarious moments. And as Kluska teased, where things end will come full circle with where they started somehow. As the Transformania trailer revealed, Johnny will accidentally turn Drac into a human, creating a bit of fun irony from where the story began. Kluska continued:
It all turns on a dime because Johnny believes that if he becomes a monster, it will make everyone happy and the idea is that Drac is going to leave the hotel to Mavis. Then through the series of events with the Monsterfication Ray that Drac becomes a human and all this sort of mayhem happens in a classic comedy of errors… Mavis has to go on a journey to fix it before it’s too late. She’s really the one who is driving these additional stakes of the movie as she tries to fix her family.
Even though Johnny and Drac will be center to the story, Mavis will have a major role in the final Hotel Transylvania movie as well, as she adventures out to switch Johnny back to human and her father back to a vampire. Check out a first look at the upcoming movie here:
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania will mark the first time Derek Drymon and Jennifer Kluska direct a movie from the series, following Genndy Tartakovsky helming the franchise for the last three movies. Tartakovsky still serves as a writer and executive producer on the film. He told CinemaBlend of passing the torch to the new directors:
It's really exciting to see Jenn and Derek step in as directors on Hotel Transylvania: Transformania. Working with them has been a blast, they have very complimentary sensibilities and it comes through in the work. This film will see the series come to a close in a very funny, very touching, very Hotel Transylvania way. The film couldn't be in better hands, and we can't wait for people to see it on the big screen.
It’s not going to be an easy goodbye to Hotel Transylvania, but it looks like the Sony Animation movies are being handled with care (and a ton of fun) and Johnny wrestles with feeling out of place years after stumbling across the monstrous hotel. Along with Andy Samberg and Selena Gomez’s top billing, it will also once again star the voice talents of Steve Buscemi as Wayne, Keegan-Michael Key as Murray, David Spade as the Invisible Man, Fran Drescher as Eunice, Jim Gaffigan as Van Helsing and Kathryn Hahn as Ericka.
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is coming to theaters on July 23. Check out what other exciting releases are coming this summer with CinemaBlend’s 2021 release schedule.
