"Ice Age 6" in Works

A sixth installment in the prolific Ice Age franchise is on the way. 

During a guest appearance on "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!" podcast on NPR, John Leguizamo said "We're about to do Ice Age 6!" in his best Sid the Sloth voice, although the Encanto star didn't expand on the news much beyond that one statement. 

The Ice Age IP is now under the stewardship of The Walt Disney Company following its merger with 20th Century Studios, though Disney has yet to make an official announcement that the entry is in the works.

The news that a sixth Ice Age movie is in early development is both a bit of a surprise and not a surprise at all. 

The element of surprise lies in the sense that the animation studio behind the long-running series, Blue Sky Studios, closed its doors in 2021, thus seemingly putting the Ice Age series on ice (so to speak). That being said, the Ice Age saga has proven itself as one of the most valuable animated franchises in the industry, as evident by its six feature films and several spin-off shorts and specials. 

In addition to the Ice Age series is also the fourth highest-grossing animated franchise of all time, surpassing even that of "Kung Fu Panda", "Inside Out", and "Frozen".

The Ice Age story began over twenty years ago with the original installment, where we primarily follow a grieving wooly mammoth named Manny (Ray Romano), a clumsy sloth name Sid (John Leguizamo), and a grumpy saber-toothed tiger named Diego (Denis Leary). 

The unlikely trio embark on a cross-continental quest to get a young human baby returned to his family, where they form a lifelong bong in the process. This is just the beginning of the story for Manny, Sid, and Diego, as they've faced just about everything you can think of in the many films that followed.

The audience saw the heroes of Ice Age face a global catastrophe in "Ice Age: The Meltdown", face prehistoric reptiles in "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs", outsmart a charismatic band of pirates in "Ice Age: Continental Drift", and even prevent an extra-terrestrial threat in "Ice Age: Collision Course". 

Despite the closure of Blue Sky Studios, the Ice Age series still lived on with the franchise's first ever spin-off film, "The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild", though most of the cast from the original films did not reprise their roles except for Simon Pegg.

It was developed by Bardel Entertainment, and Bardel's official website does list an unannounced Disney+ project on their website, so that could potentially be an indication that they're continuing to work on the franchise for the sixth official installment.