Juliet

Juliet would be a 2026 romantic musical drama computer-animated film written and directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson, while Brad Lewis would produce the project, and Rob Minkoff would serve as an executive producer. Based on Williams Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, the film would be produced by DreamWorks Animation, and would star the voices of Zendaya, Mena Massoud, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Tommy Lee Jones, and Jeff Goldblum. Alan Menken would compose the score for the film, which would feature songs written by Menken and Benj Pasek & Justin Paul.

Development on an animated Romeo and Juliet film would begin in early 2022, with Jennifer Yuh Nelson set to write and direct the film. In late 2022, Minkoff would join the film as executive producer. In early 2023, Scott and Massoud would join the film as its leads, while Butler and Jones would join in mid-2023, and Downey Jr. and Goldblum would join the cast in late 2023. Voice recording would begin in early 2024. The filmmakers would choose to center the film around the character of Juliet in order to give the story "a modern, progressive, and feminist perspective".

Juliet would be released in July 25, 2026, by Universal Pictures, and would become a critical and commercial success, earning praise for its screenplay, themes, voice acting (particularly Scott and Massoud's), songs, score, visual effects, and animation. The film would earn 989 million dollars at the worldwide box office over a budget of 140 million dollars. Juliet would earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature, as well as two Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song, and a Golden Globe for Best Film.

Voice cast

 * Zendaya as Juliet Capulet, the daughter of Capulet, who is tired of her father determining her life. Zendaya would describe her as "somebody who slowly begins to connect with her free spirit". The filmmakers would potray her as "the proactive one" in her and Romeo's relationship in order to "make their love very important, but also make Juliet a feminist character".
 * Mena Massoud as Romeo Montague, the lovesick son of Montague, who falls in love with Juliet in spite of their families' grudge. Massoud would describe his arc in the film as "simply learning what love is".
 * Michael Keaton as Capulet, Juliet's overprotective and sexist father, who holds a grudge against the Montague family. Keaton would describe him as "a guy who is very, very, very wrong, but at the same time a guy everybody can understand", comparing him to his character, the Vulture, in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017).
 * Tommy Lee Jones as Montague, Romeo's father, who strugless to take car of his family during his war against the Capulet family.
 * Robert Downey Jr. as Benvolio, Romeo's good-hearted cousin and best friend, who chooses to help him gain Juliet's love. Downey would define him as "a true wingman" and "somebody who only wants those close to him happy".
 * Jeff Goldblum as Count Paris: A kinsman to Prince Escalus, who has an obsession towards Juliet. According to director Jennifer Yuh Nelson, the filmmakers would cast Goldblum in the role because "he has a big level of charisma, big enough that he can play an antagonist, and yyet you could buy that every character in the story loves him". According to Nelson, Goldblum would improvise heavily his lines during recording, to the point of saying that "if there's any line from his mouth that was in the script, it was most likely pure coincidence".

Trivia

 * This would be the first DreamWorks Animation film to feature Alan Menken as composer and songwriter
 * The film would feature three actors who previously worked in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Robert Downey Jr., who is known for playing Iron Man in the franchise; Michael Keaton, who previously potrayed Adrian Toomes/The Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017); and Jeff Goldblum, who played the Grandamster in Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and voiced the character in the animated series What If...? (2021).
 * Robert Downey Jr. and Michael Keaton previously worked together on Game 6 (2005) and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
 * Jeff Goldblum previously starred on DreamWorks' The Prince of Egypt (1998).