“Zootopia 2” Writer/Director Duo Jared Bush & Byron Howard on Assembling 697 Artisans for Their Historic Hit

Fifteen years ago, a sitcom writer named Jared Bush walked into the office of Disney executive Byron Howard, who had an idea for a movie about talking animals. The guys hit it off and made a little movie called Zootopia, which, if you recall, was a smash hit. So, they followed that up with the recently released Zootopia 2, the top-grossing animated picture in history with $1.7 billion worldwide. Helmed by writer/director Bush and director Howard, who also teamed on Moana and Encanto, the Oscar-nominated movie follows the continuing misadventures of bunny cop Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) and her snarky fox partner Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) as they engage with snakes to solve the mystery of who really invented the walled city of Zootopia.

The Zootopia 2 braintrust, headquartered in Burbank, California, assembled an enormous team of artisans to bring the story to life. Howard says, “We were trying to make a movie that’s supposed to go out into the world and resonate with a lot of people. One reason it worked is that we had so many people from so many different walks of life who were helping us make the film.”

Speaking from their offices at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Bush and Howard discuss introducing “Gary the Snake” as the sequel’s new hero, how they rely on “Story Jam” improv to generate new ideas, and why AI technology will never replace the human touch in their movies.

Two directors, one movie. How does that work, for example, when it comes to voice talent?

BYRON: The first one, we did more or less together. On this one, Jared did [the voice-directing] way more than I did just because he’s the writer, so he comes in with sort of a meter and a rhythm in his head. We have 70 speaking parts in the film, and they’re all very different. Fortune Feimster [who voices Nibbles Maplestick] is very different from Ke Huy Quan [Gary the Snake], who’s very different from Ginni and Jason or Patrick Warburton [Mayor Winddancer]. They all have to be customized, and Jared has this skill for switching gears. He also knows how to make people feel comfortable, because recording for these films is the most uncomfortable situation anyone could ever be in.

JARED: You’re in this weird, little techie room with nothing on the walls and a microphone in your face under high pressure. I will say, I think my crowning achievement was directing Byron’s voiceover work in this film. He played Joel the Deer, and I had to strangle him to achieve that performance.

BYRON: He directed me with his tight grip around my throat.

Whatever it takes! Not only did Zootopia 2 set a box office record with $1.7 billion, but you also employed a massive crew of 697 artisans to get there. In light of the overall slowdown in Hollywood, are you mindful of the kind of impact a movie of this scale has on the local filmmaking community?

JARED: Yeah, absolutely.

BYRON: We have our team here in Los Angeles, and also a team in Vancouver, and largely, we’re all under one roof. I love that we work across the street from where Walt [Disney] and those folks made those early films because animation really is a team sport, it’s a community, and we thrive on being around each other.

Besides being the Zootopia 2 writer/director, you’re also the Chief Creative Officer overall Disney Animation…

JARED: I would like to clarify one thing, which is that Byron hired me. Fifteen years ago, he hired me, and every day since then, he’s like, “I hired you” over and over. Nonstop. So I still have to pay allegiance to Byron. But talking about the crew that came together to make this film, it’s not just animators animating at the highest level, which they do, or cinematographers bringing us some of the most gorgeous layouts we’ve ever seen. It’s also the fact that everyone in the building, everyone on the crew, has a voice in what the story is about and how they feel about the characters. We want to make sure the characters earn their emotional moments and that everything is as funny and exciting as it can be.

How does your “Story Jam” concept play into this inclusive type of collaboration?

JARED: Earlier in my career, I worked in sitcom television where we’d sit around and spitball notions that may or may not work in a scene. We’ve tried to emulate that in “story jams,” which means bringing together storyboard artists, our animators, and our visual development artists. We get everyone in a room and say, with the Marsh Market, for example, “This is gonna be for semi-aquatic and marine mammals. What’s the craziest thing that could happen there? What’s the most fun animal? What would they be doing?” And we’d just throw out ideas for hours. Many of those ideas never see the final film, but every now and then, you come across a gem. The Story Jam allowed everyone to come in and riff off of one another across departments, which made for a really fun, collaborative environment.

You guys also made Moana 2 and now, Zootopia 2. What is the secret to a successful sequel?

JARED: Every movie is different, which means every sequel is also different. But I think something we really wanted to stress on this one was making sure that our two main characters, Judy and Nick, stayed at the very center. In a world where there’s so much eye candy and so many fun paths you could go down. We had to stay disciplined and make sure that Zootopia 2 was, at its core, a relationship story above all else. 

Speaking of relationships, one of the cool things about Zootopia 2 is the way it builds on the mismatched buddy action movie tradition, along with car chases, the big gala where our heroes get all dressed up, and other types of live-action set pieces that we’ve seen before, but then you remake them for a world uniquely realized through animation.  Zootopia 2 was made by guys who know their Hollywood movies.

JARED: That’s a very high compliment. In Zootopia 2 we give a lot of shout outs to movies and filmmakers that we love. I mean, The Shining is in there. Spielberg is all over this thing. We have The Silence of the Lambs. You get Beverly Hills Cop, kind of, and 48 Hours.

BYRON: You might think [Hollywood movies] would be very centered in a Western perspective, but it’s not true. There really is a global appreciation of these nods.  And, to Jared’s point,  Zootopia is a cheeky world where people like being in on the joke.

Even if a five-year-old doesn’t necessarily “get” the references…

JARED: Yeah, although I find that today’s younger audiences do know these references. Thinking about my kids and their friends, they know so much. When doing audience previews, it’s kind of difficult if you have a five-year-old who knows story structure, giving you a note about your third act. These [young] guys are smart, and we never talk down to them.

Jared, I read somewhere that you actually sketched out the snakes concept for Zootopia 2 way back when you were working on Encanto. True?

JARED: The real story is, I’m one of the worst artists you can possibly imagine. My sketches are famously ridiculed in the hallways of Disney animation, including by Byron Howard. But we always thought reptiles would come along one day, so I did sketch just the words “Zootopia 2,” with the “2” as a snake. Which is about the only thing I can draw. But we just thought the idea of bringing snakes into this story would be fun. Most people’s opinion about snakes is negative, so what a great thing for us to dive into. Since we had already set up the first film, which was about bias and stereotypes, we could continue to talk about those differences.

What kind of technology tools did you use for Zootopia 2 ?

JARED: We use software to create the animation, to do rendering, and to move through the physical spaces in these worlds. For years, we used a program called Maya, but it was sort of off-the-shelf, and Presto is animation software developed at Pixar. It’s a very efficient way of organizing animation. For Zootopia 2, which is the most complex animated film Disney has ever done, Presto allowed animators, layout artists, and lighters to work on scenes at the same time, which is something we couldn’t do before.

BYRON: The story is usually the thing that pushes the technology forward. In this film, we have a shot with 50,000 animals at that Burning Mammal Festival, which we could not have done just a couple of years ago.

How has AI impacted the way you work?

JARED: Well, the first thing you should know is that Byron is a robot. Most people don’t know that. So that’s probably a good place to begin.

BYRON: I need an update, though.

JARED: For as much technology as our films have, they are handmade. Like, every single detail, every choice of animation, the acting, every bit of wood grain on those planks in Marsh Market, all the water effects, and all of the amazing textures and the grooming of every hair on these mammals, and every scale on Gary the Snake—that has been put there by a human being. I think when people see CG, they assume [it’s AI]. It’s not. It always begins pen to paper and becomes this amazingly crafted piece of community artwork, and it doesn’t come easy. Fundamentally, Disney Animation is a place where that human touch is always going to be central to every single thing that we do.

Zootopia 2 is available to stream, and will arive on Disney+ in mid-to-late March.

Featured image: UNRAVELED – In Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Zootopia 2,” rookie cops Judy Hopps (voice of Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (voice of Jason Bateman), who find themselves unraveling a mystery alongside a snake called Gary De’Snake (voice of Ke Huy Quan). From the Oscar-winning team of Disney Animation chief creative officer Jared Bush and Byron Howard (directors) and Yvett Merino (producer), “Zootopia 2” releases in theaters Nov. 26, 2025. © 2025 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.