Universal has reserved two 2022 release dates for its upcoming DreamWorks Animation movies.
The sequel to the 2011 Oscar nominated Puss in Boots, entitled Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, will open on Friday, September 23, 2022. Currently, Puss in Boots 2 is the only wide release on that date, and Universal had the weekend already reserved for an untitled event film.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish will be directed by Joel Crawford and produced by Mark Swift, the creative team behind DWA’s 2020 smash The Croods: A New Age, which earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture – Animated and is the third highest-grossing feature during the pandemic with $158 million.
Oscar nominee Antonio Banderas will again voice the suave feline outlaw, as Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for adventure has taken its toll: He has burned through eight of his nine lives, leaving him with only one left. He sets out on an epic journey to find the mythical Last Wish and restore his nine lives.
Shrek and the Puss in Boots franchise have together grossed over $3.5 billion at the global box office; the original Puss in Boots grossed $554M.
Meanwhile, DWA’s The Bad Guys will open on Friday, April 15, 2022. That title will be up against an untitled Warner Bros event feature on that date as well as Paramount’s The Lost City of D starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum.
Bad Guys follows five notorious bad guys who’ve been behind big heists—Mr. Wolf, Mr. Snake, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Shark and Ms. Tarantula—as they attempt their most challenging job yet…going good. Based on the bestselling Scholastic book series by Aaron Blabey, which has more than 8.2 million copies in print worldwide, The Bad Guys is directed by Pierre Perifel (director, DWA award-winning short Bilby; animator, the Kung Fu Panda films) who is making his feature-helming debut here. Pic is produced by Damon Ross (co-producer, Nacho Libre) and Rebecca Huntley (co-producer, Abominable, associate producer, The Boss Baby). Executive producers are Blabey, Etan Cohen and Patrick Hughes.