Surprise ‘Moana’ sequel sets sail this November
But will Auliʻi Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson come along for the voyage? PLUS: ‘Jurassic World’ snags a ‘John Wick’ director, and Taylor Swift heads to Disney+.
We’ve made it through another week. At least, I assume you did if you’re reading this edition of Popculturology. There’s a ton to talk about this week, including the surprise announcement of a Moana sequel and whether or not we’ll get to see a dinosaur say, “yeah, I’m thinking I’m back,” in a new Jurassic World movie.
We started watching the Ted prequel show on Peacock. Despite a few friends telling me to watch it, Ted wasn’t on my radar. It’s been a long time since I was a Family Guy viewer, and I didn’t think another Seth MacFarlane show was going to be worth my time.
I was wrong. Ted is worth your time.
Dustin Rowles over at Pajiba summed up Ted pretty well: “It takes a real asshole to reboot something no one asked for and then have the audacity to make it not only funny but genuinely enjoyable. It’s a real dick move on Seth MacFarlane’s part. No one wanted this! And yet, everyone who ignored the voices in their head telling them not to watch Ted has ultimately enjoyed it. A lot.”
I scheduled an Apple Vision Pro demo for this weekend. I’m absolutely not buying one (I’d rather drop that kind of money on home theater improvements, if I had that kind of money), but I figured there was no harm in taking the device for a spin like SFGATE’s Drew Magary did. I’ll take a stupid picture of myself to share with you all next edition.
Hey, it’s Superb Owl weekend, which means a bunch of new movie trailers will be making their debut during the game. Variety published a list of trailers that we should expect to see, with Deadpool 3 being the biggest question. (And will it have a Taylor Swift cameo?) I’ll have a special edition of Popculturology out after the game to run through all the Super Bowl trailers.
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NEWS, NOTES & TRAILERS
Disney transforms Moana Disney+ series into theatrical sequel
Moana is my favorite Disney film (and one of my favorite films altogether). I was thrilled when Disney made the surprise announcement that Moana 2 is heading to theaters on Nov. 27 — and then a bit worried when I started realizing how the film came together.
Way back in the pandemic days of 2020, Disney did a massive presentation to tease all of the new content coming to Disney+. Some of those shows happened. Some of them have been canceled. Some of them will never come to be. One of those shows was an animated Moana series.
Years passed, and a Moana show never materialized on Disney+. The announcement of a live-action Moana remake (bleh) in April had fans wondering if the show was still happening.
It turns out Disney decided to turn that Moana TV series into a feature film.
“Supposedly the episodes were coming back looking so good that Disney was contemplating releasing the series as a feature film,” TheWrap wrote on Wednesday. “The debate has been going on for the past few months with a decision finally reached: Moana the series is now Moana the sequel.”
Check out the first teaser for Moana 2.
