After its release on Wednesday, the reaction to the horror parody “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” was mixed, but the film is predicted to be hugely profitable, with its worldwide gross earnings surpassing $1 million, despite having a budget of less than $50,000. A sequel to the movie is already in development.
Rhys Frake-Waterfield, the director of “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey,” which turned the beloved children’s characters into vengeful slasher killers, has announced that the sequel is in the works and will have a budget five times larger than the original film. He also acknowledged the potential for a substantially larger budget, which would dramatically benefit the film.
With the significantly larger budget for the sequel to “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey,” there may be an opportunity to delve deeper into the “Winnie the Pooh” universe, potentially bringing in characters like Tigger who were not yet in the public domain during the production of the first film. The director suggested that Tigger might feature in plans for the franchise. He identified securing reasonable funding as one of the significant challenges that the movie will face. It will face competition from higher-budget films such as “M3GAN.” The director elaborated that with a larger budget, the film crew could dedicate more time and resources to perfecting each scene and achieving higher-quality results.
Frake-Waterfield is well aware of the success of the original “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” film, and he is confident that the sequel will surpass its predecessor. He seems enthusiastic about making the second movie even more enjoyable and lighthearted, possibly by adding more humor or expanding the storyline in new and exciting ways. In other words, the positive response to the first movie has resulted in the green light being given for a follow-up, and the production team is wasting no time in moving forward with the project.
He is eager to see how a bigger budget will enhance the movie’s second installment. Rhys Frake-Waterfield used characters from A.A. Milne’s classic children’s book series, which became part of the public domain in 2021. This allowed him to create a horror story focusing on revenge following Christopher Robin’s departure from the Hundred Acre Wood.
The Director is planning to create a horror empire inspired by Disney and has several projects in development. In addition to the sequel of “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey,” he has also announced plans for a horror reimagining of “Bambi” and is working on a horror movie based on “Peter Pan.” While he is eager to work on the second installment of “Blood and Honey,” he views it as just one piece of his larger plan to build a horror universe inspired by Disney’s beloved characters.
He also confirms that he has two projects currently in development: a sequel to “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” and a horror reimagining of the classic Disney film “Bambi.” However, he also notes that he is actively seeking out other concepts and ideas that are not just existing intellectual property (IP) and is considering becoming fully attached to one of these new ideas. According to Frake-Waterfield, the upcoming films “Bambi” and “Pooh 2” are confirmed projects, but he clarifies that his involvement in them is not yet certain. He explains that he may be involved in producing and helping to get the projects moving forward, but he is not guaranteed to direct them.
The first film, “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey,” had only two characters from the original series, Pooh and Piglet, portrayed as vengeful slasher killers. However, other familiar characters from the Hundred Acre Wood, such as Rabbit or Owl, could debut in the sequel. The fact that Christopher Robin managed to escape Pooh’s wrath at the end of the first movie could also lead to Pooh recruiting even more of his friends to seek revenge on Christopher Robin, who left them behind. This could make the second movie’s plot more complex and interwoven and potentially feature a more comprehensive range of characters from the original “Winnie-the-Pooh” series.
This version of Pooh Bear is different from the beloved character we know, mainly because of the violent, murderous storyline. Additionally, this version of Pooh does not feature the classic, plain red shirt associated explicitly with the Disney version of the character. While the first “Winnie-the-Pooh” book entered the public domain in 2021, the rights to Disney’s version of the character remain with the company. Since the filmmakers can draw inspiration from the original books, the portrayal of Pooh in both “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” and its sequel is expected to be different from the Disney version.
The success of “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” at the box office and on its 1,500 screen release could influence plans for the franchise. The popularity and reception of the film may determine how much further the “Winnie the Pooh” universe can expand in future projects or potential sequels.