‘The Polar Express 2’ Is in the Works

The Polar Express may ride again, thanks to the movie’s producer, Gary Goetzman. Goetzman and Tom Hanks, who reunited for Apple TV’s Masters of the Air, may return to their 2004 Christmas film as part of their next project, Goetzman told Comicbook. Despite the challenges, they are determined to get the project moving.

“Listen, I’d love to,” Goetzman told the outlet. Several Goetzman titles seem destined for sequels or follow-ups in the future. “I’d love to do a sequel of Where The Wild Things Are. There’s a lot of the things that we’ve done, if it established itself, branded itself, those movies, studios want another one. That’s the way it goes. I’m up for Mamma Mia 3, man. That would be a ball to do right about now. But it becomes, there’s so much involved with, ‘Who’s artistic property would that be? Would that be?’ It’s just not like, ‘Hey, let’s go do another free sailing! So, they all take time and that’s okay because we don’t mind things going slowly. But that is trying to be worked out now, for sure, Polar 2. Yes.”

In the 20 years since The Polar Express was released, no sequels or prequels have actually been produced, despite rumors and speculation. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis with a script by William Boyles Jr. Based on the 1985 children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg, the film isn’t clear where another Polar Express movie would go since the source material doesn’t elaborate on how things would progress.

In 2004, Polar Express pioneered a first-of-its-kind animation style that became the hallmark of the film’s legacy. As part of the film, humans are animated through a combination of live-action animation and motion capture computer animation, with scenes filmed between June 2003 and May 2004. The movie was later listed as the first film in the world to be completely digitalized in 2006 by Guinness World Records.

The advancement of filmmaking technology in the years since then has made it impossible to predict what Goetzman, Hanks, and others involved in the project could do with the story elements and visual effects. Although Goetzman has revealed he is behind a movement to get The Polar Express train moving again, Hanks and Zemeckis have not publicly commented on the possibility.