Frozen is becoming a podcast, and it’s apparently about climate change
The story, set after Frozen 2, is about machines destroying "the natural order of things"
With Hollywood on strike, a lot of famous people are turning to secondary forms of income to give themselves something to do without crossing a picket line, and that’s apparently even true for the fictional characters. As announced this morning on ABC’s Good Morning America, Frozen is becoming a podcast—but this won’t be a podcast adaptation of the films or an Office Ladies-style rewatch podcast where Anna and Elsa recap the movie (though, if it were like most rewatch podcasts, it would be, like, Kristoff and that “big Summer blow out” shop owner instead of Anna or Elsa).
Instead, it will be a narrative podcast set after the events of Frozen 2 that—apparently—deals with the threat of climate change in the mystical land of Arendelle. Titled Frozen: Forces Of Nature, the story will involve Anna and Elsa finding “copper machines” in the Enchanted Forest that are upending “the natural order of things.” That sounds very FernGully or Avatar, which is to say that it seems like an obvious metaphor for climate change, but to make it even more explicit, the podcast will feature ABC News’ chief meteorologist Ginger Zee as a “voice presenter.”
ABC notes that Zee also hosted the Inside Frozen 2 podcast, and while that movie was less explicit about the climate change angle than this podcast seems to be, it does seem like Disney is consciously pushing the Frozen franchise in that direction. And hey, that’s probably a good idea for, you know, the future.
We don’t know if any of the cast from the movies will be reprising their roles for the podcast, but A.) it would be very weird for Disney to recast these character and B.) Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, and Josh Gad probably can’t say one way or the other while the strike is going on (because it would violate SAG-AFTRA’s rules on doing promotion for struck companies).