With four highly-successful Despicable Me movies (including the Minions spinoff) under its belt, Illumination is ready to propel its 2016 talking animals hit as its second franchise. We now have our first glimpse at Illumination’s next sequel The Secret Life of Pets 2 through a trailer simply titled ‘The Max Trailer’.
As the title suggests, this trailer centers on our canine protagonist Max tricked into visiting the vet. There, he meets other pet patients who give amusing perspectives on the hassles of being a pet. This doesn’t reveal anything about the movie’s story, but it’s a cute promotion to get fans invested. Illumination will be releasing more character trailers in the near future on both its official YouTube channel and thesecretlifeofpets.com, so keep your eyes open for those.
Produced by Illumination’s Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy, the sequel sees the return of the original film’s main crew, with director Chris Renaud, writer Brian Lynch, composer Alexandre Desplat, and the talents at Illumination Mac Guff. Most of the original voice cast reprise their roles, including Eric Stonestreet as Duke the mongrel, Kevin Hart as Snowball the rabbit, Jenny Slate as Gidget the Pomeranian, Lake Bell as Chloe the tabby cat, and more.
One notable change in the cast, however, revolves around Max. For those unaware, Illumination promptly cut ties with original voice actor Louis C.K. following sexual misconduct allegations last year. Taking over Max’s voice for the sequel is comedian Patton Oswalt, who you may know as the voice of Remy in Pixar’s Ratatouille. Although sounding a little different, Oswalt does give a charming and charismatic delivery to Max, more so than what C.K. provided earlier.
The first Secret Life of Pets movie became a massive hit in 2016, becoming the most profitable movie of that year by grossing $875 million worldwide on a $75 million budget. Critic-wise, it did gain decent reviews, although the story received criticism for being a Toy Story wannabe. This is something I do hope the sequel remedies by being more its own thing rather than trying to replicate another’s success.
For those excited to reunite with Max and friends, Universal Pictures will unleash The Secret Life of Pets 2 in North American cinemas on June 7, 2019.
[Universal / Illumination]
Are you keen on the idea of a Secret Life of Pets sequel? What do you think of Patton Oswalt being Max’s new voice? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!
Edited by: Kelly Conley