Any fans of Chicken Run from all the way back in 2000 still kicking around? Well, here’s some good news for you: Aardman Animations and Netflix finally moving forward with the sequel. It’s even got a new title and more!

Chicken Run 2 Revealed!

"Chicken Run" poster.
Now about to have twice as many chickens. At least.

The Hollywood Reporter recently released some news about the upcoming Chicken Run 2 film from Aardman Animations and Netflix. First off, it’s not called Chicken Run 2 anymore. This sequel to the 2000 stop-motion animated masterpiece is now officially Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. The title carries multiple meanings, actually. You’ll see in a minute.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget even gets a synopsis from The Hollywood Reporter. Said synopsis actually contains quite a few details about this upcoming Netflix film, including some new main characters. Check it out below:

“Set shortly after the death-defying escape from Tweedy’s farm in the original, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget sees Ginger having finally found her dream — a peaceful island sanctuary for the whole flock, far from the dangers of the human world. When she and Rocky hatch a little girl called Molly, Ginger’s happy ending seems complete. But back on the mainland, the whole of chicken-kind faces a new and terrible threat. For Ginger and her team, even if it means putting their own hard-won freedom at risk — this time, they’re breaking in!”

As for when we’ll get to see this reverse breakout film, The Hollywood Reporter even has that ready for us today. It seems Netflix plans to stream Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget sometime in 2023. We don’t have a specific date unfortunately, likely because they’ve only just started production on it. We’ll just have to wait for them to tighten up the release date later.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget ~ Casting Details

The star of this film hatching out of her egg.

And now we get to the nitty-gritty bit: voice casting for Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. According to the same article from The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix has recast main characters from the original film Rocky Rhodes (originally voiced by Mel Gibson) and Ginger (originally voiced by Julia Sawalha). Zachary Levi (Chuck, Tangled, Shazam!) will voice Rocky, and Thandiwe Newton (Crash, Westworld, Solo: A Star Wars Story) will voice Ginger.

Based on an older report from The Hollywood Reporter, it’s likely that Mel Gibson’s racist and anti-Semitic comments contributed to his recasting in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, so that’s understandable. Julia Sawalha’s recasting is a bit murkier though. According to The Hollywood Reporter as well, it seems that the producers axed her because she sounded “too old” for the role now. In spite of the producers apparently not even giving Sawalha a chance to do a voice test. Yeah, it’s no wonder Sawalha is accusing the producers of ageism on Twitter. It seems unlikely at this point, but let’s hope Aardman and Netflix comes to their senses and at least give Sawalha a role in the sequel.

As for the other voice cast for Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones, Hilda, The Last of Us) will voice Molly. Other cast members include Jane Horrocks as Babs, Imelda Staunton as Bunty and Lynn Ferguson as Mac, joined by new additions Josie Sedgwick-Davies (Hound & the Rabbit) as Frizzle, David Bradley (Harry Potter) as Fowler, Romesh Ranganathan (Cinderella) as Nick, Daniel Mays (Good Omens) as Fetcher and Nick Mohammed (Ted Lasso) as Dr. Fry.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter, The Hollywood Reporter, The Hollywood Reporter, Twitter