Twenty-six years after the original film hit theatres, Universal and Imagine Entertainment are developing a sequel to the 2000 film ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas.’
Jim Carrey, who starred as the Grinch, is expected to return, as is Ron Howard, who is set to return as director. Brian Grazer, co-founder of Imagine Entertainment alongside Howard, is expected to come back as a producer.
Talks are still ongoing and things could fall apart. No release date has been announced. No cast beyond Carrey has been confirmed at this stage.
How big was the original film?
The original “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” was a commercial juggernaut when it released in November 2000. The family film dominated the box office, earning more than $350 million, a huge sum at the time.
The film was based on the 1957 Dr. Seuss book of the same name. It featured Carrey in heavy prosthetic makeup playing the grumpy green creature who tries to ruin Christmas for the residents of Whoville. The film became a holiday staple and continued to draw audiences for years after its initial run.
The property was later adapted into a 2018 animated film simply titled “The Grinch,” released by Universal and Illumination Entertainment, which was another monster hit. That version featured Benedict Cumberbatch as the voice of the Grinch. The franchise has remained commercially strong across both live-action and animated formats.
Who is writing the script?
If the sequel moves forward, the script will be written by Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer, and David Mandel.
Berg is best known for his work on “Barry” and “Silicon Valley.” He created and showran “Barry,” the HBO dark comedy series starring Bill Hader, across four seasons. He was also a key writer and executive producer on “Silicon Valley,” the long-running HBO comedy about the tech world.
Schaffer’s credits include “Life, Larry and The Pursuit of Unhappiness,” while Mandel served as showrunner on “Veep.” “Veep,” the political satire starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, ran for seven seasons on HBO and won multiple Emmy Awards.
All three writers are veterans of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and also worked together on another Dr. Seuss adaptation, “The Cat in the Hat,” which starred Mike Myers. That film, released in 2003, was widely panned. It was nominated for several Razzie Awards and won the category for “Worst Excuse for an Actual Movie (All Concept/No Content).”
The trio’s shared history with both Larry David’s world and the Seuss universe makes their involvement in this project an interesting choice. Whether their comedic sensibility translates well to a family sequel remains to be seen.
What about Jim Carrey?
Carrey was among the biggest names in Hollywood through the 1990s and early 2000s. Films like “The Mask,” “Ace Ventura,” “The Truman Show,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” kept him at the top of the industry for over decade.
In recent years, he has been less active. He stepped back from spotlight and has been more selective about roles.
He is currently set to reprise his role as Dr. Robotnik in “Sonic the Hedgehog 4” scheduled for 2027. His return to the Sonic franchise follows strong performances in both “Sonic the Hedgehog” (2020) and its 2022 sequel.
On the question of returning as the Grinch, Carrey had already publicly addressed it before this development. In a 2024 interview with ComicBook.com, he said: “Oh gosh, you know, if we could figure out the Grinch. The thing about it is, on the day, I do that with a ton of makeup and can hardly breathe. It was an extremely excruciating process. The children were in my mind all the time. ‘It’s for the kids. It’s for the kids. And, it’s for the kids.’ And now, with motion capture and things like that, I could be free to do other things. Anything is possible in this world.”