Will ‘Trolls Band Together’ release be delayed? The rumors, explained

Look, I know it’s been a rough couple of years, and nobody’s in the mood for more bad news, and I don’t want to alarm anybody, but Trolls 3 might not come out on time. What’s worse, it might be JC Chasez’s fault – tangentially.

First, the facts: Trolls Band Together is the forthcoming third entry in the Trolls saga. It’s a franchise of DreamWorks animated films which follows the adventures of some singing, dancing Troll Dolls, the kind that readers who were alive during the Clinton administration will remember impaling on No. 2 pencils, only reworked to look less like nightmares. In theory, the threequel will hit theaters on November 17th. 

The premise of this latest tale is a simple one: Branch — played by Justin Timberlake — is trying to reunite a boy band that’s called it quits. And that’s where we make the jump from established facts to rumors, conjecture, and Troll-based gossip.

On August 13, Reddit user u/mollyafox posted a rumor stating that “a kids movie” with a swiftly approaching release date might be pushed back. The reasoning behind the move: the film was supposed to harken in “a reunion like no other” — the author tosses the subject line “OutOf Sync” in there, just in case you didn’t get the hint — and with the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, the unnamed-but-super-implied reuniters would be unable to discuss their decision to start working together again, as it would pertain to the plot of the movie. 

In short, getting one of America’s biggest pop groups back together after two decades, only to have them not be able to talk about it due to strike rules, would be one of the biggest whiffs in recent showbiz history.

This is all just conjecture for the time being, but it would be understandable if the studio decided to push the release of Trolls Band Together. A reunion of the members of NSync — if there is one — would get weary Millennial parents and their kids piled into theater seats. That’s a lot of tickets to buy, buy, buy. Without the opportunity to promote the event, Dreamworks will be lucky if they even rent, rent, rent.