Wreck-It Ralph 3: Why The Next Story Might Not Be A Movie
Wreck-It Ralph 3 had been rumored, but there are not any concrete plans from Disney for a third movie.
In this day and age of sequels and franchises, once a brand is established, studios like Disney are hard-pressed to actually let them go. Such as it were, we’re only talking about Wreck-It Ralph 3 because the first ones did so well.
Coming near the beginning of what is known as Disney’s “Revival Era,” after a rough period for Disney animation in the 2000s, Wreck-It Ralph was a massive hit for Disney animation. After being in development for decades under a variety of names like High Score, Joe Jump, and Reboot Ralph, Wreck-It Ralph came out November 2012, making $189 million in the United States, and $471 million worldwide.
Six years later in 2018, the film’s sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet, would do even better, earning $201 million in the U.S. and $529 million worldwide.
Ralph Breaks the Internet is just over four years old, which has folks wondering about a third film in this series. Originally, it looked like another flick or project was gearing up for a 2024 release, but that may have stalled. Let’s look and see if a Wreck-It Ralph 3 will happen.
THE WRECK-IT RALPH CREATORS SEEMED HAPPY WITH THE SECOND FILM’S ENDING
In an interview with ComicBook.com soon after the release of Ralph Breaks the Internet, co-directors Phil Johnston and Rich Moore made it sound like they were completely happy with ending the series with the second one. “I mean, I don’t know because I feel good about where they’re at,” said Johnston.
They continued talking about what it would take to make Wreck-It Ralph 3, saying, “I mean you could envision like plot things where something gets screwed up and they have to reconnect to fix it. But in terms of it being a story of maturation for Ralph? Like he’s really, like John Reilly said in the press conference. The internet represents the sort of adult phase of their life.”
He continued, “And I think Ralph, at the end, has matured where he is comfortable in his skin and he will make friends and he and Vanellope will still hang out. And Vanellope is just coming of age, she’s just finding that thing that makes her passionate, and I don’t know.”
WRECK-IT RALPH 3 COULD INVOLVE 3D PRINTING OR EVEN DISNEY PRINCESSES
At a press junket for Ralph Breaks the Internet, Moore and Johnston told Moviefone they did have a few concepts for Wreck-It Ralph 3. Johnston said, “Ralph gets into a 3D printer…and he prints himself and he comes into our world.”
But then Johnston’s ideas completely goes off the rails, “He coaches a Little League team. A band of misfits and they win the World Series.” Or Bad News Ralphs, as Moore calls it.
Moore’s concept for Wreck-It Ralph 3 is a bit darker, “Imagine, in a world where two best friends are separated by the expanse of the internet and one is taken. So it’s an animated Taken where Ralph gets kidnapped…and Vanellope is the Liam Neeson character who gets the princesses involved in finding, taking back Ralph.”
In an interview with CINEMABLEND, Moore and Johnston commented that someone could theoretically do a Wreck-It Ralph 3 the Disney Princesses. But given that with the exception of Ralph Breaks the Internet, Disney has been against mixing their various franchises, this idea, while technically possible, is ultimately unlikely.
When talking to the Toronto Sun, star John C. Reilly had his own ideas for a theoretical Wreck-It Ralph 3, “Where does he go from here? Maybe satellites? Now that he and his pal Vanellope can get themselves into the Internet, why wouldn’t they beam themselves right out into space?” Reilly continued, “Why wouldn’t they go to the Hubble telescope and break that?”
The possibilities seem endless. There’s no limit to the things that Ralph and Vanellope could break together in Wreck-It Ralph 3.
IT WOULD BE THE FIRST TRILOGY FROM DISNEY
While Disney has made plenty of direct-to-video sequels, Walt Disney Animation Studios proper has only made four sequels to their Disney animated classics.
In fact, The Walt Disney Animation Studios didn’t make a sequel for 53 years, until the release of 1990’s The Rescuers Down Under. Since then, sequels have still been rather sparse, and only three other sequels have been released: Fantasia 2000, Ralph Breaks the Internet in 2018, and Frozen II in 2019. The possibility of sequels has certainly picked up in recent years, but they’re still extremely unlikely.
That being said, if there were to be a Wreck-It Ralph 3, it would be the first film in Walt Disney Animation Studios’ history to receive a third installment. Considering how much flack Pixar received for overdoing it with its sequels, Disney will likely learn from their mistakes and try to shy away from an abundance of sequels.
Plus, if Disney were to make a trilogy out of any of their recent animated films, it seems far more likely they’d focus on Frozen III.
While there’s nothing saying that Disney would bring back the same creative team from the previous two films for Wreck-It Ralph 3, one of the men behind Wreck-It Ralph’s creative team no longer works for Disney.
Variety reported in 2019 that writer and director of both Wreck-It Ralph and Ralph Breaks the Internet, Rich Moore, had left Disney to work with Sony Pictures Animation. Moore also co-wrote and co-directed Disney’s 2016 film, Zootopia, and most importantly, voiced Zangief in the Wreck-It Ralph films.
Despite Moore’s leaving, Ralph Breaks the Internet director Phil Johnston seems to still work for Disney, so there’s nothing to say that he couldn’t helm a Wreck-It Ralph 3.
THERE IS NO RELEASE SCHEDULE FOR WRECK-IT RALPH 3
As it stands, it’s possible we could get a Wreck-It Ralph 3 and even John C. Reilly has expressed interest in getting another movie going. That said, Disney’s past practice with this kind of thing would suggest this is the end of the line for the franchise and there are not any current, concrete plans for more.
