The Ice Age Adventures Of Buck Wild - What We Know So Far

The "Ice Age" animated film franchise is one of the more enduring series in pop culture. The first movie, 2002's "Ice Age," follows a saber-tooth tiger, a sloth, and a woolly mammoth as they attempt to return a prehistoric child to its tribe. The voice cast of "Ice Age" is led by Ray Romano, Denis Leary, and John Leguizamo.

Since the first installment, there have been five "Ice Age" movies, with the most recent feature being 2016's "Ice Age: Collision Course." To date, these movies have earned more than $3.2 billion at the worldwide box office (via The Numbers). In addition to the "Ice Age" feature films, the franchise includes shorts and video games. The story of the "Ice Age" franchise is expanded through these sequel movies, shorts, and TV specials. Audiences have watched as the unlikely trio of prehistoric allies introduced in the 2002 movie escape cataclysmic floods, become parents, fight packs of dinosaurs, and even have an acorn-inspired alien adventure.

Originally created by Blue Sky Studios, a division of 20th Century Studios (known as 20th Century Fox at the time), the "Ice Age" franchise is currently overseen by Disney. A new addition to the franchise, titled "The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild," was first announced as a TV series in 2018 (via ComingSoon) before transforming into a feature-length film and moving to Disney+ in 2019 (via Discussing Film). Here's what we know about the next installment of "Ice Age," including the release date, cast, and plot.

As previously mentioned, "The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild" was first developed by Blue Sky Studios and intended to be a television series. However, following Disney's acquisition of Blue Sky Studios' parent company 20th Century Fox, "Adventures of Buck Wild" was repurposed as a movie in December 2020 (via The Verge). For now, the release date for "Adventures of Buck Wild" is set for January 28, 2022, per the film's official trailer released during Disney+ Day on November 12 (via YouTube).

Instead of opting for a purely theatrical release or a hybrid model, "Adventures of Buck Wild" will instead land directly onto the popular Disney+ streaming service. It appears it will be part of the standard subscription tier rather than debut in the Premier Access category, which previously included "Black Widow" and the live-action "Mulan" remake. As such, Disney+ subscribers will not have to pay an additional fee to watch the new "Ice Age" movie. Considering that the film arrives on January 28, it could be safe to assume it will be ready to stream at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT.

Per the movie's IMDb profile, the cast of "The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild" currently consists of Simon Pegg, Vincent Tong, and Utkarsh Ambudkar, and Aaron Harris. Simon Pegg, perhaps best known best for his performances in "Shaun of the Dead" and more recent "Mission: Impossible" entries, voices the character of Buck (aka Buckminster), first introduced in "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs." Buck is a wily weasel who lives in the Lost World, a hidden refuge of dinosaurs and other pre-glaciation creatures. Buck is relentless in his pursuit of dinosaurs and, as seen in the Disney trailer, wears an ersatz eye patch made from a leaf and a sports rather large scar from his encounter with a dinosaur named Rudy, his arch-nemesis.

Buck is joined by Crash (Tong) and Eddie (Josh Peck), a pair of bumbling opossums. The trailer for "Adventures of Buck Wild" reveals we will also see Manny, Diego, Sid, and Ellie. But, at the moment, the voice actors for the roles have not been confirmed. In the previous "Ice Age" films, Manny is voiced by Ray Romano, Diego is played by Denis Leary, Sid is voiced by John Leguizamo, and Ellie is voiced by Queen Latifah.

The plot of "The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild" can be gleaned from the recently released trailer. The trailer sees the intrepid, although slightly inept, opossum pairing of Eddie (Josh Peck) and Crash (Vincent Tong) accidentally reopen a passage to the Lost World. They eventually come across Buck (Simon Pegg), who is essentially acting as a one-person army in a hostile world of dinosaurs. Eddie and Crash yearn for adventure, and, judging by this first look, they will surely get plenty of it. It also seems like Buck will get a chance to flex his survival skills, which should be fun.

Elsewhere in the trailer, we see the trio of Buck, Eddie, and Crash come to blows against dinosaurs, giant spiders, and other hostiles in the unforgiving Lost World. Sid, Manny, Diego, and Ellie will also show up if only to see what eventually happens with Eddie and Crash. Will Buck earn his stripes as a superhero before the end of "The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild?" We will have to wait and see, assuming we don't get distracted by a nigh-unattainable acorn.