Everything you need to know for Frozen 2 

What a time to be alive! Well, unless you are the hapless parent of one of the millions of children still obsessed with Anna, Elsa and everything 

In March, four months after the Telegraph broke the news of the Frozen sequel, Disney officially confirmed it: Frozen 2 is on the way. 

While we can\'t tell you anything for sure given that it will be ages until we see so much as a teaser trailer, we can use the power of our own brains to tell you what is most likely to happen. 

Here is everything we know – or can guess – about the sequel. There may well be a betting system in place to see how much we get right. 

1. Frozen 2\'s release date won\'t be before 2018

Once it got the greenlight, the first Frozen film took two years to create, and while Disney will understandably want to hurry along a full-length sequel to their recordbreaking cash cow, they are really tied for time. 

Disney has three films due out before Frozen 2 including 2018\'s Moana, and the songwriters have to write a brand-new score for the stage musical, which is on the horizon but not imminent. 

Apparently, Frozen films take longer to make than ice palaces

"We\'re not demanding speed," Disney\'s CEO, Robert Iger said in January, "We\'re demanding excellence."

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2. Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel will both star 

Yes. A thousand times yes, at least – once the lawyers have sorted out their pay. Given that Frozen is the highest-grossing animated film of all time, and the fifth highest-grossing film full stop, they can certainly angle for a higher pay day. But yes, they\'ll be back: in fact, you can see them in Frozen Fever, the short sequel. 

Dreams really do come 2!!! #FROZEN2 #itsofficial pic.twitter.com/qF6qTQlnqi

— Kristen Bell (@IMKristenBell) March 12, 2015

Bell tweeted about the sequel in lavishly entertaining style: 

Bell and Menzel are both synonymous with Frozen. Sales of Menzel\'s version of Let It Go have massively outstripped the "official" Disney single sung by Demi Lovato, while Bell\'s charming skit where she sang all the voices in Do You Want To Build A Snowman has been viewed millions of times online. 

Rejected #Frozen2 announcement photos: #CantTellItsIce #LooksLikeAPillow pic.twitter.com/8NSwGTo3PN

— Kristen Bell (@IMKristenBell) March 13, 2015

Rejected #Frozen2 announcement photos: #TooMuchVent pic.twitter.com/GKMngozDm8

Anna and Elsa in Frozen Fever, voiced by Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel 

Happily, Bell\'s follow-up tweets pretty much guarantee that she will be back, and she has told the Huffington Post that she would love to reprise Anna. "Should my phone ring, I will be there in a heartbeat."

At last, I can say – FROZEN 2!!!! I'm beyond excited to create alongside my Frozen family! pic.twitter.com/Xgbt67QuGc

Backstage with #JohnLasseter after announcing #Frozen2. As you can see we are not mildly excited.

As iconic as Elsa\'s blue dress is, you need to factor in that an enormous chunk of the planet\'s children now own an Elsa dress. 

Given that they will wear the dress at any given opportunity, there is an enormous, silky cash cow to be made from introducing another dress. 

Three things: 1) Anna's new dress, 2) Elsa's new dress, 3) Tiny snowmen. #FrozenFever pic.twitter.com/m6iv2IhsPk

The new short film, Frozen Fever, has already introduced a new look for Elsa and Anna, so expect another one entirely for Frozen 2. 

Don't look so sad, there's a frock change on the way

Frozen merchandise has sold like billy-oh – technical finance term – since the film was first released in cinemas in November 2013. There was a frenzy when Frozen dolls sold out, with parents paying hundreds of dollars to try and get hold of them on Ebay. Cuddly toys, books, sing-a-long DVDs and cinema screenings, and Anna and Elsa outfits have all since joined the show, so expect Frozen 2 merchandise to step it up a notch. 

6. Frozen 2\'s Let It Go will be a big duet between Anna and Elsa 

Telegraph film critics Robbie Collin and Tim Robey are in agreement that Disney has a battle on its hands in making a successful musical sequel. While the likes of Grease 2 have attracted a cult following, Disney\'s sequels have largely gone straight to video with changes in voice cast. 

However, since the success of television\'s Glee, Smash and Nashville as well as reality shows like the X Factor and The Voice, as well as the High School Musical series, on-screen singing is on the up. 

The overwhelming success of Let It Go at the Oscars, cinema sing-a-long shows, karaoke bars and in memes, means that Frozen 2 needs something very different but with impact. 

 Tim Robey: "I think they\'ll definitely try to position one song as a Let It Go-trumping central number. At a guess, though, it might be a duet between the sisters. They only shared about four scenes in the first film, so I feel more detailed development of that relationship has got to be the way to go. 

Musical sequels are rare beasts, and often don\'t pan out too well – see Grease 2, Funny Lady, etc. Disney have generally made the sensible step of reducing costs and sending them straight to video. Though I guess the High School Musicals got more and more popular. And we all know full well that Frozen 2 will be enormous, even if it\'s no good at all." 

 Robbie Collin: "Frozen 2 categorically has to be a musical, and it categorically has to have a big central ballad – can you imagine what would happen if it wasn’t? There would be looting. 

"But the problem with musicals is – unlike films in general – they just don’t spawn successful sequels. And while it’s hard to say exactly why that is, I suspect it’s because so much of your enjoyment of a musical is tied up in the experience of a particular number: not just the song and the singer\'s performance of it, but the staging, where it fits in the narrative, and as a result of all of those things put together, the very particular fireworks display of emotions it takes you through. 

"That’s why Let It Go has been so phenomenally successful: although Elsa’s technically ‘in the wrong’ while she’s singing it (she’s running away from her sister, though the moral of the story is they’re better off together), it’s the feeling of glorious release that the number delivers – for years she’s kept her true self pent up, but now, finally, here she is, in all her glory – that makes it so triumphant in the moment and so much fun. 

"Now, replicating those exact conditions in another story with the same character is impossible, because she’s already undergone that specific emotional journey, and to have her do it again would ring totally false. In non-musical sequels, that doesn’t matter. Take the Avengers franchise: Robert Downey Jr. can crack wise and fly around and shoot repulsor beams in all kinds of different narrative contexts, and fans will be delighted by that. Disney are smarter now than they’ve been for decades, and they will know all this and know they need to solve it while still delivering another Frozen-like experience. 

"So I suspect what they might do is either give the big showstopping number to Anna, or (more likely, I think) to have both sisters sing it together. That way they can draw on the broad themes that made the original film so popular, but explore them in a completely new context. 

"Possibly the sisters will sing a duet about being stronger together while they’re being kept separate by some villain or evil force, taking verse about, then line about, and then coming together for a big, soaring chorus. Possibly I’ve thought a bit too much about this."

Frozen\'s composer, Christophe Beck, returned to write the score for Frozen Fever, with Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson Lopez coasting on the high of their Oscar for Let It Go to pen a new song, Make Every Day A Perfect Day. 

The Lopezes have tweeted about the sequel announcement, but none of the three have openly confirmed their return, perhaps because work on the Broadway show is still very much underway. 

Honestly, stop asking such morbid questions

This is one of the most common questions about the sequel, to which the answer is two-fold: 1) what a morbid bunch of people you are and 2) are you quite mad? 

No, Elsa will not die "for good". If she dies, billions of dollars worth of spin-ofs and merchandising die with her, not to mention any chance of a parent with a child under six ever getting that child to sleep again. 

With Anna and Kristoff's burgeoning romance underway, Olaf should find a snow soulmate

However, Paddy Power is offering odds of 3/1 that Elsa\'s end will come, which are pretty strong, but also open to technicality. If she does bite the icy mountain dust, it would likely happen in the style of Anna in the first film, ie: grave threat coupled with a heartwarming last minute reprieve thanks to the love between two sisters™. Either that, or she will ascend to the mountains to become a benevolent nature force in the style of Whoopi Goldberg\'s Gaia in the Captain Planet cartoons. 

It has to happen. Not only for the plot, but for the merchandise. Olaf is one of the most beloved Disney sidekicks ever created, and with Anna and Kristoff romantically entangled, and Elsa happy ruling her kingdom and getting to grips with her ice powers, blossoming romance is in Olaf\'s court. 

He is an incredibly popular character choice for people making Frozen cakes, so Olaf plus lady friend would send the cuteness factor over the edge.

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