Sequel Bits: 'The Conjuring 3', 'Bumblebee', 'Sing 2', 'The Croods 2', 'Trolls' & More

In this edition of Sequel Bits:

First up, if you're eagerly anticipating the upcoming animated sequels to Illumination Entertainment's Sing and DreamWorks Animation's The Croods, Deadline says you'll be waiting a little bit longer.

First, Sing 2 has been bumped from a December 2020 opening to a new summer release date of July 2, 2021. The sequel will bring back Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton, Nick Kroll and Tori Kelly from the original movie as the animal singers Buster, Meena, Rosita, Gunter, Johnny and Ash prepare for a bigger stage, leaving the Moon Theater behind for the big city.

And The Croods 2 will be moving into the vacated December 23, 2020 release date, leaving behind the previously set September 2020 opening. Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman and Clark Duke are reprising their roles as the titular caveman family while Leslie Mann and Peter Dinklage have joined the cast as part of another family.

If that's not enough of animation news for you, Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation are teaming up with VStar Entertainment Group to take a Trolls live show on tour across 60 cities.

Deadline reports Trolls Live! will have "singing, dancing and glitter-filled celebration that only the Trolls can bring." The show will have its own original story following Poppy and Branch as they enlist the help of Biggie and Mr. Dinkles, Satin and Chenille, Cooper, Cloud Guy, Smidge, Guy Diamond and Fuzzbert when the beloved tradition of Hug Time is threatened. It's all in support of the upcoming animated sequel Trolls World Tour arriving in 2020, and the spin-off animated series Trolls: The Beat Goes On!

Trolls may be computer animated, but the show will use a combination of scenic projection, puppetry, media technology and special effects and interactive surprises, so your kids will lose their goddamn minds. The show begins touring sometime later this year.

Bumblebee may not have been as big of a box office hit as Paramount Pictures was hoping, but the Transformers spin-off did deliver the most satisfying entry in the franchise since the original movie debuted in 2007. But the ending resulted in the camaraderie between the titular Autobot and his teenage friend Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld) seemingly coming to an end. Will they end up reuniting in the sequel, or will this just allow Bumblebee to have a new adventure with someone else?

Director Travis Knight talked about why he felt having Charlie and Bee go their separate ways was necessary to have a story that had a beginning, middle and end, though he doesn't rule out the possibility of them seeing each other again. Knight told ComicBook.com:

"I'm sure a creative mind could come up with a way to bring them back together, but it was always incredibly important to me that this film, even though it sits within a larger context of mythology and comics and cartoons and films, that this film be self contained that it lives on its own. That it had a beginning, it had a middle and an end and it had proper resolution. And so as I was charting the relationship between these two character there was no other way for it to end. It had to end with them parting. It's about one of those relationships, one of those life changing relationships that where someone comes into your orbit and fundamentally changes your trajectory moving forward. And it was, he has his mission to do and he has to go do it and she has her life and she has to live and she has to go live it. And they change each others lives, but then they had to part and that was the story that I was telling. And so even though I love seeing them together, and I was sad when they had to part as well. It was critical for what this movie was."

Even though Gotham is coming to an end, another Batman prequel series is just beginning. This time, we're flashing back to the younger days of Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred Pennyworth in the aptly named series Pennyworth.

Jack Bannon plays the title role in the series set in 1960s London, when Alfred Pennyworth was a former British SAS soldier who forms a security company and goes to work with Thomas Wayne. The rest of the cast includes Paloma Faith, Ben Aldridge, Hainsley Lloyd Bennett, Ryan Fletcher, Jason Flemyng and Polly Walker.

Pennyworth debuts on Epix starting July 28, 2019.

Finally, director Michael Chaves took to his website to post this official title artwork from The Conjuring 3. Along with the image, he also posted this quote from Ed Warren:

"Diabolical forces are formidable. These forces are eternal, and they exist today. The fairy tale is true. The devil exists. God exists. And for us, as people, our very destiny hinges upon which one we elect to follow."

The Conjuring 3 has been said to focus on a man on trial for a murderwho claims that he was possessed by a demon and didn't willingly commit the crime. Obviously, Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) will be needed to work on the case.

The Conjuring 3 arrives next fall on September 11, 2020.