Netflix Working on Sequel to One of Its Biggest Movies

By John Connor Coulston

Netflix's most popular animated movie is getting a sequel. That right: Netflix has greenlit a sequel to The Sea Beast, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Chris Williams, the director/co-writer, signed an overall deal with Netflix in late 2022, with two new movies in the works, one of which is a sequel to the 2022 seafaring adventure.

"I never thought beyond the first movie," Williams told THR. "We were not planning for a series. And that was for the good. I just wanted to make this a fun experience and not compromise (the movie) by trying to set up future anythings. A priority in the first one was making it feel plausible and truthful. And when I thought about the truth about where the Sea Beast ended, it looks like everything is nicely wrapped. You have the father and daughter sitting on the dock, the world has changed and given up monster hunting and, isn't that terrific? But the more I thought about the truth of it, the more I realized the story wasn't really over.

"And primarily, I was thinking about this brand new family of Jacob and Masie that have been thrown together. Suddenly Jacob is a parent, a parent to an especially willful kid, right? And so when you see them on the dock, you know that's not what parenting looks like. It's far messier, far more complicated and more trying at times than that. So the idea of the challenges of this new family became interesting to me. And I also wondered about whether every single hunter in the world would just give up their source of income and identity, and I thought there's a lot more story here."

As for if the Red Bluster (the main creature from The Sea Beast) would return for the in-development sequel, Williams only offered a "maybe." At this juncture, the creative process is pretty fluid, so there's no telling if Red will or won't appear in the next movie.

"One of the things that is true about story is that it always evolves. Dramatically, even," Williams said in the Q&A. "Sea Beast used to be called Jacob and the Sea Beast before Masie existed. And it underwent a radical transformation. Almost anything I say now, in four years, can be completely different. The story will get a life of its own and communicate back to you and say, 'This thing you thought was so great? It's not so great.' Or, 'This thing you didn't think much of? It's pretty great.' And in interacting with the story team, the story also grows."

While The Sea Beast 2 is the headline-grabbing title Williams is working on, he is also piecing together another movie, an untitled fantasy flick. In his interview with THR, Williams compared it to The Lord of the Rings, The Princess Bride and Game of Thrones.

"It would be similar to Sea Beast in that I would create a completely cohesive world," the director said. "Tonally, it would be between Lord of the Rings and Princess Bride. It's like Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings where you have a history that leads up to the point where the story begins, and it's a huge world with multiple events going on outside the story being told. But at the same time, I want to have fun with some of the conventions that Princess Bride did. It's not parody and it's not making fun of it, but it has a perspective that is light and refreshing.

The Sea Beast, co-written by Williams and Nell Benjamin, is streaming on Netflix now. Its voice cast includes Karl Urban, Zaris-Angel Hator, Jared Harris, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Kathy Burke and Jim Carter. No cast members have been confirmed for The Sea Beast 2 or Williams' fantasy movie as of press time.

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