In what reality would the residents of Bird Island and Piggy Island find common ground? The one shown in the new trailer for The Angry Birds Movie 2.
In EW’s exclusive sneak peek at the animated sequel from director Thurop Van Orman, our ill-tempered avian pals are teaming up with their rotund adversaries to stop a force that threatens them all: Leslie Jones’ Zeta, a purple-feathered bird who’s sick of living in total tundra. So she starts firing ice balls every which way, putting both islands in danger.
We got a glimpse of the kind of heat Zeta is packing in her frosty fortress in the first trailer; now let’s see what the birds and pigs are bringing to the sequel.
Red (Jason Sudeikis), Leonard (Bill Hader), Chuck (Josh Gad), Bomb (Danny McBride), and Mighty Eagle (Peter Dinklage) all return in The Angry Birds Movie 2, but this time they’ll be joined by Silver (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Rachel Bloom) and Ella (The Descendants’ Dove Cameron).
“She’s a workaholic,” Cameron tells EW of Ella. “She’s very type-A, very high-strung, very high-maintenance, but she’s a very lively character in the bird community. She’s very opinionated and she’s just starting to get her feet wet in the dating pool, but she’s very standoffish, very independent.”
Based on her date with Bomb, as seen in the preview, it’s not going so well.
The fact that Dove Cameron is voicing an actual dove isn’t lost on her, either. “It wasn’t always a dove,” she mentions. “It was some kind of blue finch or something and then when I went into the studio, they were like, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we made it into a dove?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, you should absolutely do it.’ And then they did.”
Ella is a major “supporter” of Silver, the speedster sister of Chuck. As Bloom says, she’s “a woman in science who doesn’t let her opinions be compromised by, in essence, a character that is always trying to mansplain her and who is threatened by her, which definitely airs sometimes to the experience of being a woman in comedy.”
Red seems to be that mansplainer, who claims, “I just don’t think you’re going to be compatible with the team.” Clearly, he’s the one who’s not compatible.
As it happens, EW played a part in Bloom’s casting as Silver. “The first film was included on the cover of EW’s year-end Best of 2016 issue,” producer John Cohen explains. “I have the framed cover hanging on the wall of my office. And when we started talking about casting the role, the idea was right in front of us. Red was there in the center, standing in the hand of… Rachel Bloom.”
The job offer was “such an easy yes” for Bloom. “If you told me The Angry Birds Movie would be a way to show a woman in a STEM field, I would not believe it,” she says. “It’s really cool. I think it’s really awesome, and she’s herself. She’s girly in certain ways, she’s feminine… but also she’s a science genius. So I think it’s a really positive thing for not just little girls, but all kids to see.”
Chuck still sees Silver as his little sister, but it’s “a role she’s trying to break out of,” Bloom adds.
Also spotted in the trailer are Zach Woods and Pete Davidson as Carl (the smaller one in the photo above) and Jerry (the larger one), respectively, two birds on Zeta’s payroll.
The Florida Project’s Brooklynn Prince voices Zoe, whom she describes as “the cutest hatchling ever,” while This Is Us star Sterling K. Brown voices Garry, “the smartest pig with the coolest specs,” the actor tweeted. Apparently, he also drinks the most pig Starbucks of any other pig.
Crazy Rich Asians’ Awkwafina helps round out Team Pig as Garry’s headphone-wearing helper, Courtney.
With all this star power, Zeta is going to find it a little difficult showering the world in ice.
“She heightens everything, she raises the stakes. The homes are directly being threatened,” Bloom says of Zeta. “She’s a formidable adversary because you grow to understand where she’s coming from, and I think the most dangerous villains are the ones who you can completely understand. And there are also some moments there [with Silver] that I like, of smart woman respecting smart woman. That’s always an interesting mutual respect among female protagonists and female villains, there’s always a moment of ‘I see you.’ It doesn’t mean I like you, but I see you.”
The Angry Birds Movie 2, based on a screenplay by Peter Ackerman, will hit theaters Aug. 16.
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- Sterling K. Brown, Leslie Jones, Rachel Bloom join The Angry Birds Movie 2
