Home Entertainment Eggsellent news: A Chicken Run sequel is coming to Netflix, but Mel Gibson won’t be back

Eggsellent news: A Chicken Run sequel is coming to Netflix, but Mel Gibson won’t be back

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Aardman Animation have for a long time been one of those studios who have set the benchmark for claymation movies. Their devotion to the painstaking process of animating their creative clay models is inspiring, but it’s not just their excellent animation production that keeps them going. It’s their great stories and witty humour they tell through them as well.

After 20 years, one of their most beloved and well-received movies of all time is finally getting a sequel. Chicken Run, that movie which centred around a coop of chickens led by Ginger (voiced by Jula Sawalha), who try to escape the farm where they are being held captive with the aid of a rooster named Rocky (Mel Gibson). The film didn’t just have delightful characters, but buckets of humour as well. To this day, the film remains the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time and was even nominated for an Oscar the year it was released. It’s the kind of success that Aardman has seldom found again and yet surprisingly, we never got a sequel to the movie despite getting one for Shaun the Sheep and the many different Wallace and Gromit films.

Thankfully, that is all about change with Netflix announcing that the Chicken Run sequel will be coming directly to their service. Following the news, Aardman was also able to finally release some details on the plot as well. Sam Fell will replace Nick Park as director of the movie, although Park will be remain on the project as a consultant.  

The new film will be set almost immediately after its predecessor, with Ginger and the rest of the flock finally living peacefully on an island sanctuary. She and Rocky have even hatched their first chick, Molly. Though on the mainland, something terrible threatens the rest of chicken-kind. This time, the chickens are breaking in, even if it means risking their freedom.

The film will hope to continue with the same magic that made the first film such a success, though there will definitely be one big change that we already know from the voice cast. That of Mel Gibson. Even though the actor and director has arguably redeemed himself since over the years following his anti-Semitic comments in the early 2000s, Newsweek is reporting that Chicken Run 2 will proceed without his voice giving life to Rocky, after he found himself the subject of controversy again with Winona Ryder revealing that he once asked her if she was an “oven-dodger” when the subject of Judaism came up at a party. This renewed focus on his anti-Semitic comments has led the producers to not even consider him for the role again and they are actively looking to cast another voice actor in his place.

Still, a new Chicken Run movie is welcome news regardless of who are voicing the characters. We don’t know when exactly the sequel will be coming out to Netflix, but Aardman has already started production. Which means that at most, they have another several thousand little models to build and move around at ridiculously precise rates until they’re satisfied with the end result.

Last Updated: June 24, 2020

One Comment

  1. konfab

    June 24, 2020 at 10:20

    Green pigs invade to steal their eggs.

    Reply

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