Genndy Tartakovsky won’t be back to direct Hotel Transylvania 3

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Even though Sony hasn't announced a sequel to HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 yet, there more than likely will be another installment, since the follow-up improved on the opening-weekend total delivered by the first movie, with a budget about the same as the original. However, director Genndy Tartakovsky recently told The Wrap that he won't be back for the threequel.

Hotel Transylvania 3 is going to happen without me. Two is enough. I have a lot of other ideas, and I kind of have to express them and have them come out.

One of those ideas is CAN YOU IMAGINE?, a project Tartakvosky said he wanted to focus on after dropping out of Sony's POPEYE earlier this year due to creative differences. The director also again explained to the site what happened with the planned animated movie.

We made a version that we were happy with, and the studio didn’t like that version. It’s still a mystery for me that they didn’t like that version. They wanted to do “Popeye” for the brand recognition and I loved the character and grew up with it, so there was a tug of war. They wanted it really updated, and I can only update it a little before it isn’t “Popeye” anymore. To be truthful, it was in the middle of the Sony hack and the studio was really struggling. It was just really bad timing.

While I'm not a fan of the HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA movies, I am a big fan of Tartakvosky and his small-screen creations like, Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack. I'm very interested in learning more about CAN YOU IMAGINE? and hopefully he won't run into any issues trying to get it made.