Josh Gad praises ‘amazing messaging’ for children in The Angry Birds Movie 2

Josh Gad returned for The Angry Birds Movie 2 because of the sequel’s “amazing message”.

The animated sequel, based on the hugely popular mobile phone game, comes almost three years after the first film, The Angry Birds Movie, debuted in cinemas.

And Gad, who voices yellow bird Chuck, said that he immediately signed up to return when he realised that the sequel was going to be something special.

"There's no reason to do a sequel unless you're going to try to top the original, and with this, it was immediately clear to me that there was a whole different approach," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "The idea of frenemies uniting, when it was first pitched to me, was just so ingenious.

"The movie has some amazing messaging in it, not the least of which is overcoming differences with people you disagree with in order to find a common ground, which I think speaks to a lot of issues we're dealing with right now.”
A number of Hollywood A-listers also make an appearance in the sequel, with Saturday Night Live star Leslie Jones voicing the villainous purple bird Zeta.

"(She was) such inspired casting and brings such an unwieldy new energy to the film that disrupts everything in such a great way," Gad gushed.

However, director Thurop Van Orman revealed that Jones unknowingly cast herself in the role a few years ago.

"She was on a talk show a few years ago, I don't even remember which talk show, and she was like, 'I've always wanted to be a villain, if anybody is listening I want to be a villain!'" he remembered. "So when we were looking at who to cast as a villain we were like, 'Oh yeah, s**t, she would be amazing.'"