Dreamworks Animation and Universal Kill ‘Croods’ Sequel

Dreamworks Animation will not make Kirk De Micco and Chris Sanders’ sequel to the 2013 hit The Croods. The film had been in development for the last three-and-a-half years. The news was first reported by Variety on Friday evening.

The decision was reportedly delivered to Dreamworks employees on Thursday, the same day that Cartoon Brew reported Dreamworks could be ceasing operations at its 300-person studio in India.

The 30 or so employees who had been working on the film will be reassigned to other projects or placed into educational/training programs at the studio, an unnamed Universal source told Variety.

Last August, Croods 2 was delayed from 2017 to 2018; at the time, the delay was attributed to Comcast/NBCUniversal’s impending purchase of the studio. But, as Variety points out in its piece:

Individuals at both DreamWorks and Universal said doubts had been raised about proceeding with Croods 2 even before Universal was put in charge. Two sources said that Universal was effectively just ratifying a decision already made by DreamWorks Animation to kill the movie.