Peppa Pig: World War

"First there was survival. Now, the War begins."

- The film’s tagline.

Peppa Pig: World War is a 2026 American-British animated post-apocalyptic dark comedy war film based on the animated preschool series Peppa Pig, serving as a sequel to 2024’s The Peppa Pig Movie. The film is directed again by Rhys Frake-Waterfield, produced by Ian Bryce, Mark Gordon, and Gary Levinsohn, and written by Frake-Waterfield, from a story by him, and stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Pine, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Paul Rudd, Chris Evans, Jordan Peele, Kate McKinnon, Tina Fey, TJ Miller, Mindy Kaling, Zoe Saldana, Kristen Wiig, Channing Tatum, Tom Holland, Kristen Stewart, Pedro Pascal, Amanda Seyfried, Daniela Melchior, Rachel Ziegler, Helen Mirren, Peter Cullen, Julie Andrews, Patrick Stewart, Chris Pratt, Sarah Silverman, Chloë Grace Moretz, Dwayne Johnson, Michael Keaton, Awkwafina, Lucy Liu, Fred Armisen, Angela Bassett, Ron Perlman, Robert Downey Jr., and Vin Diesel, with Taika Waititi as the Narrator.

Set two years after the events of the first film, the film follows Peppa, the only survivor of human Rhys’ successful attempt at anthropomorphic animal extinction on Earth, as she re-encounters Rhys, joined by his long-lost brother Rob, an encounter which results in the accidental resurrection of Peppa’s family, friends, and all the killed animals. The conflict results in a world war between the animals and an alliance of Peppa, Rhys and Rob, while also fearing a seeming threat related to the multiverse. Plans for a sequel began after the first film’s massive box office success. Director Rhys Frake-Waterfield wanted to take the satire from the first film in a bigger direction and expressed interest in a war film with Peppa. The sequel was officially announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2024, with Frake-Waterfield and all of the first film’s all-celebrity cast returning. The film’s title was unveiled in October. The producers, previously involved in Saving Private Ryan (1998), wanted to balance the outright war genre and style with the dark comedy satire and parody of the franchise from the first film. With a runtime of 150 minutes, it is the longest ever animated film produced by a Hollywood studio.

Peppa Pig: World War was theatrically released on May 1, 2026. The film received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics, with criticism at the animation, plot, style, action, black comedy, inconsistent tone, screenplay, direction, runtime, pacing, and characters. Despite this, the film grossed $1.694 billion worldwide, falling short of its predecessor’s gross but becoming the second highest-grossing animated film of all time, the second highest-grossing film of 2026 (behind Avengers: The Kang Dynasty), and the 11th highest-grossing film of all time at the time of its release. A third and final film, Peppa Pig: Cartoon Wars, is scheduled to be released on 2029.

Premise
Two years after the events of the first film, nearly all anthropomorphic animals on Earth have been killed by the human Rhys. Peppa Pig, the only survivor from Rhys’ attack, has settled alone on her own planet, Pepplanet-1. However, when Rhys and his long-lost brother, Rob, arrive on Pepplanet-1 to kill the final animal once and for all, the fight between Peppa and Rhys and Bay results in the accidental resurrection of all the animals, including Peppa’s family and friends. With a lot of groups with different reactions to what happened, the animals decide to strike in revenge against Peppa for her actions. Meanwhile, Peppa joins Rhys and Rob as they use this world-shattering conflict for their own gain to destroy everyone forever. As the War escalates, Rhys and Rob start preparing for an imminent danger related to the multiverse.

Plot
Two years after the extinction of all anthropomorphic animals in the world in the ending of the first film, Peppa Pig, the only survivor of the animal extinction, has lived a lonely and peaceful life on her own planet, which she has named Pepplanet-1. Meanwhile on Earth, Rhys has also been living alone on Earth trying to create a chemical to return humans to the world. He has used the remains and DNA of the dead animals to shape the cure, this by extracting the DNA of every single animal and put them together and then use an antidote to turn the jointed animal DNA into human DNA and expand it. When he finally has every animal DNA, the antidote’s transformation doesn’t work, and realizes that he has one animal missing: Peppa.

Rhys uses an old, malfunctioning rocket ship to travel to Pepplanet-1, carrying the dead animals along with him. The rocket’s malfunctions cause it to crash-land on the Moon. While trying to repair it, he discovers his long-lost brother, Rob, stranded on the Moon as well. Rob is revealed to have been Rhys’ partner in the experimentation on Poopa Pig, the first anthropomorphic animal, and when the experiment went wrong and nearly all of humanity was mutated by the disease, he ran away in the last second to space and crash-landed to the Moon. Rob explains that when he arrived to the Moon, he discovered a prophecy that involved a world war between all the anthropomorphic animals, one that would devastate the multiverse and destroy all of reality. However, Rhys ignores his brother’s words and, with the repaired ship, the two continue their path to Pepplanet-1.

After a couple of hours, Rhys and Rob arrive on Pepplanet-1, where they find a isolated Peppa. Peppa and Rhys have a one-vs-one duel, which ends with Peppa accidentally freeing the antidote with the Animals’ DNA, resurrecting all the animals from Rhys’ spaceship. The include Peppa’s brother George, mother Mommy Pig, and father Daddy Pig, and her other family members, her friends — Danny Dog, Pedro Pinypon, Susy Sheep, Rebecca Rabbit, Richard Rabbit, Candy Cat, Zoe Zebra, Emily Elephant, Edmond Elephant, Freddy Fox, Wendy Wolf. Gerald Giraffe, Gabriella Goat, Molly Mole, and Delphine Donkey (the latter five having died off-screen in the first film) — and her other known allies, among others. When the animals see Rhys, they try to catch him, but he retreats with Rob, and they hide in a nearby cave somewhere else in the planet. When the animals recount Peppa how they died, they also blame her for inexplicably letting them die. Peppa admits that she is evil and always wanted to rule the world, and didn’t care for any of the animals. As the animals contemplate with their shock at what Peppa said, she then drops a bomb at the place in an attempt to kill them again, though they escape.

The animals escape to a different cave and share their reactions. They decide to start a world war against Peppa in revenge for her actions. They help each other to use the planet’s resources to create war vehicles and weapons. Meanwhile, Peppa joins Rhys and Rob’s side, helping them in making their own weapons and tactics for the war. In secret, Rhys and Rob plan to betray and get rid of Peppa as soon as they emerge victorious in the War and take Pepplanet-1 for them alone to build a true new civilization with no chance at animals returning. Meanwhile at the animals’ base, Edmond Elephant manages to build satellites that detect activity across all of the planet, and locates Peppa, Rhys and Rob’s base. The team sends Mr. Bull, the strongest member of them all, to infiltrate. When he arrives at the trio’s base, they discover him and kidnap him, and have Rhys beat him up to submission until he reveals the animal’s base location. Bull reveals the location at the last second badly injured, and leads the trio to the base. At this point, the War officially begins.

As the War advances, multiple members of the animals’ side are killed, with the only ones surviving being George, Mommy, Daddy, Pedro, Candy, Zoe, Freddy, Wendy, Gerald, Gabriella, Molly, Delphine, Bull, Super Potato, and Policeman Stag. They retreat in their now-destroyed base, where they discover mysterious radioactive toxic chemicals that glitch, and decide to use them to have super powerful hopes for winning the War; George injects the chemicals on his toy dinosaur, which turns it into a giant, real monstrous dinosaur that he himself rides; Daddy regains his super-muscular and non-fat shape he gained in the first film’s final battle; Candy and Zoe gain Ice powers and use them against Rhys in revenge for being frozen solid and killed off-screen in the first film; Freddy gains singing powers to sing “The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)”, by Ylvis, in battle, while also looking for revenge on Rhys for killing his father in the first film; and Wendy, Gerald, Gabriella, Molly, and Delphine, initially sad that they weren’t involved in Peppa and her friends’ survival adventure in the first film, gain powers on their own that supercharges their abilities. With this, the animals’ side gets more and more victorious and crazy.

After lengthy sequences of intense battle, the animals arrive towards Peppa in her very own throne. Peppa is revealed to have gotten radioactive chemicals for herself and gains powers to control and shoot muddy puddles out of her own hands, and uses it to attack the team. The animals try to communicate to Peppa to turn her good again, with Pedro reminding her when he sacrificed himself for her in the first film, but Peppa barely listens. After another lengthy battle, just as Peppa is about to kill all of the animals, the overdose of radioactive chemicals all around the battlefield result in a series of multiversal portals beginning to unleash, fulfilling Rob’s warning to Rhys about the War’s consequences. As Peppa is distracted, Rhys and Rob finally betray her by pushing her off one of the portals to an unknown location. Rhys and Rob try to fight off the animals themselves and soon try to get the chemicals for themselves, but Bull grabs them, healing him from his injuries and allowing him to give the final blow to Rhys and Rob by punching them to a portal to an unknown location in revenge. The team celebrates their victory and use the chemicals to revive the fallen allies.

Meanwhile, Peppa finds herself in a mysterious location. The location resembles Earth, except back to the state it once was before Rhys arrived and first caused the animals’ extinction. She is shocked to find her own family and friends living peacefully and having a good time in the sunny day, but most shockingly, them hugging Peppa and loving her. Peppa asks them about the War and Rhys, but they do not understand. Peppa, confused, goes to her room and gets absolutely shocked at who she meets: another Peppa. With this revelation, she discovers that she arrived at another universe, the original timeline, in which Rhys never arrived, the War never happened, and everything was happy and cheerful as it originally was, and that the timeline in which Rhys did arrive was a fake branched timeline out of the original, and in which the return from the Playgroup’s original trip to the Ancient Lands went well. This revelation makes Peppa realize that she herself is the fake Peppa and the Peppa she has just met is the real, not-evil one. It is also revealed that the chemicals of the battle key to multiversal travel, which, if not safely managed, can result in the multiverse’s destruction.

The Real Peppa alerts her family about the Fake Peppa, but they soon discover that the multiverse is slowly tearing apart and glitching as a result of Fake Peppa’s arrival to the real timeline. Soon, Rhys and Rob arrive, revealed to have also fallen to the real timeline, and take the two Peppas with them. Meanwhile in the fake timeline, the animals also witness the multiverse collapsing, and decide to travel through the multiverse to find Rhys and Rob for answers to save the multiverse. In the real timeline, Rhys and Rob, in a universe-hopping spaceship, discuss how Rob was right about the prophecy of the multiverse’s collapse. The duo then tell the Peppas that they are going to save the multiverse by uniting a society of animated characters, dubbed the “Cartoon Alliance”, to fix everything, before the ship takes off riding by it’s pilot and member of the Cartoon Alliance, Dex Dogtective.

Voice Cast
Additionally, Charlie Sheen appears, uncredited, as Dex Dogtective in the film’s ending, reprising his role from Lionsgate’s own Foodfight! film series.
 * Anya Taylor-Joy as Peppa Pig / Fake Peppa, George’s brother and Mommy and Daddy Pig’s daughter who, after letting die all her friends and family in the first film’s ending, teams up with Rhys and Rob to start a world war against the animals. Taylor-Joy also voices Real Peppa, an alternate version of Peppa revealed to be the Peppa of the “true” timeline, with Fake Peppa revealed to be from a branched, fake reality.
 * Chris Pine as George Pig / Fake George, Peppa’s brother and Mommy and Daddy Pig’s son. Pine also voices Real George.
 * Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Mommy Pig / Fake Mommy Pig, Peppa and George’s mother and Daddy Pig’s wife. Louis-Dreyfus also voices Real Mommy.
 * Paul Rudd as Daddy Pig / Fake Daddy, Peppa and George’s fat-shamed father and Mommy Pig’s husband. Rudd also voices Real Daddy.
 * Chris Evans as Danny Dog
 * Jordan Peele as Pedro Pony
 * Kate McKinnon as Susy Sheep / Fake Susy, Peppa’s former best friend. McKinnon also voices Real Susy.
 * Tina Fey as Rebecca Rabbit
 * TJ Miller as Richard Rabbit
 * Mindy Kaling as Candy Cat
 * Zoe Saldana as Zoe Zebra
 * Kristen Wiig as Emily Elephant
 * Channing Tatum as Edmond Elephant
 * Tom Holland as Freddy Fox
 * Kristen Stewart as Wendy Wolf
 * Gerard Butler as Gerald Giraffe / Fake Gerald, one of Peppa’s former friends. Butler also voices Real Gerard.
 * Amanda Seyfried as Gabriella Goat
 * Daniela Melchior as Molly Mole
 * Rachel Ziegler as Delphine Donkey
 * Helen Mirren as Madame Gazelle
 * Peter Cullen as Dr. Brown Bear
 * Julie Andrews as Granny Pig
 * Patrick Stewart as Grandpa Pig
 * Chris Pratt as Uncle Pig
 * Sarah Silverman as Auntie Pig
 * Chloë Grace Moretz as Chloe Pig
 * Dwayne Johnson as Mr. Bull / Fake Mr. Bull, a garbageman and construction worker. Johnson also voices Real Mr. Bull.
 * Awkwafina as Mrs. Rabbit
 * Michael Keaton as Mr. Potato / Super Potato
 * Lucy Liu as Dr. Hamster
 * Fred Armisen as Policeman Stag
 * Angela Bassett as the Queen / Fake Queen, one of the only two previously known humans alongside Father Christmas. Bassett also voices the Real Queen.
 * Ron Perlman as Father Christmas
 * Robert Downey Jr. as Rob, Rhys’ long-lost brother.
 * Vin Diesel as Rhys, a human who got the entire anthropomorphic animal world with the exception of Peppa extinct in the ending of the first film.
 * Taika Waititi as the Narrator / Fake Narrator. Waititi also voices the Real Narrator.

Production
After The Peppa Pig Movie grossed $1 billion at the box office, director and co-writer Rhys Frake-Waterfield said in an interview that he would be interested in making a sequel if offered, saying that he would like to “expand the satire and dark comedy and take the craziness to a whole nother level”. He also said he would love to do a. Peppa Pig war film. At San Diego Comic-Con 2024, it was announced that a sequel was in development, with Frake-Waterfield returning as director and writer. In August, the film was set with a release date of May 1, 2026. In October, the film’s title was announced to be Peppa Pig: World War, and that the entire all-star voice cast of the first film would return.

In an interview in February 2025, Robert Downey Jr. said that he would voice the film’s “main villain” depicted as “Rhys’ brother”. It was later reported that Downey only joined the film so he could get a $80 million paycheck. At CinemaCon 2025 in April, the film’s official logo and plot was unveiled and that the film had started production. Later that day, it was revealed that Ian Bryce, Mark Gordon, and Gary Levinsohn would serve as producers. Frake-Waterfield said that they were hired as producers since they had experience on the greatest war film, Saving Private Ryan, and could bring the right way to “make the plot right” for the film’s war story.

In an interview in October 2025, Peppa Pig co-creators Neville Astley and Mark Baker revealed they were not involved in the film, despite serving as producers and formerly-hired directors and writers for the first film. Astley said “We were already pretty disappointed, and a bit angry, on how The Peppa Pig Movie turned out with its story, tone, and style. It was nothing at all how the show was, how we envisioned this big theatrical adaptation when we first made those first drafts […] and then when they announced the inevitable sequel when the film somehow grossed a billion dollars, we went to the Lionsgate offices where Rhys greeted us with, “you’re not involved in this. We’re taking this on a whole different direction. This time, truly no more cute muddy jumping. You can be out of the movie now”. That’s why we’re not in the film and we are not supporting or watching it, not even in 22 more years of this franchise we made so dearly”.

Box Office
Peppa Pig: World War grossed $701 million in the United States and Canada, and $993 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1,694 billion. It is the second highest-grossing animated film of all time (behind it’s predecessor), the second highest-grossing film of 2026, and the 8th highest-grossing film of all time.

Critical Response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 19%, based on 275 reviews, with an average rating of 2.1/100. The critical consensus says, “A bloated continuation that barely reaches the potential of the self-parody vibe it keeps aiming for, Peppa Pig: World War is exactly what it’s title resorts to: chaotic, tiresome, and absolutely illogical mindless action up to cliffhanger conclusion”. It is the highest-grossing film with the lowest score on Rotten Tomatoes, surpassing the first film. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 25 out of 100, indicating “generally unfavorable reviews”. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a “C+“ on an A+ to F scale.

Mark Rattota of ScreenCrush gave the film one out of four stars, calling it “the worst animated film since The Emoji Movie” and “an early contender for the worst movie of the year”. Roger Watchermatcherhatcher wrote, “Peppa Pig: World War answers an interesting question: what happens when you triple up the non-sense that was The Peppa Pig Movie into a new level? The result is an overlong, illogical, unfunny, lazily-made, tonally confused, mindless, exhausting piece of ”children” entertainment that has no holding-back on how sloppy and unwatchable it is”. He gave the film one star out of five. Tomson Supretalchukaquitamunach Jr. from Screen Rant gave the film zero stars, calling it “unwatchable” and “extremely and absolutely lost in story, character arcs, action, style, humor and mercy for the viewer”. He criticized the sudden set-up for a multiverse-related story in the third act, stating that “whatever multiverse and crossover non-sense Frake-Waterfield and Bay have in plan for an inevitable third installment… I will absolutely not be a part of it and will not watch it under any circumstance. Much like my father when Foodfight!: It’s About Time was released in theaters, I am officially retiring as a movie critic. Time to give my job to my son, so he can watch the third film instead of me. But bless him for life when that happens”.

Christian Zilko of IndieWire gave the film two stars out of five, saying that while the film had “kind of a so-bad-its-good feeling throughout”, he felt that the film was nevertheless “boring” and “overlong” compared to the first film, while criticizing the overly bloated War story, plot holes, Peppa’s villain role, humor and cliffhanger ending. He also felt how the editors of 2017’s Transformers: The Last Knight serving as editors of this film made it much worse, and how it’s style was applied from the mentioned film. Robert Upey of Variety gave a negative review as well, saying that the film “just went completely off the rails to the point where it was no longer unintentionally funny and was just too exaggerated and tiring”. He also commented that the War story as well as the multiverse implications throughout the film made “no sense for not just what the film aims for, but most importantly what the franchise really is: relaxed, educational kids’ entertainment. However this long-accepted style for it got completely broken by the terrible Peppa Pig Movie. But now, it got way beyond to a point of no return with the even more awful sequel Peppa Pig: World War”. Cillian Shaknon of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film one star out of four, criticizing the bloated story, poor voice performances, long runtime, and the execution of the set-up for a multiverse-related story.

Converserly, Imnota Reel-Personne from The Fake Reviewer gave a more positive review like with the first film, praising the animation as “bombastic” and enjoying the personal and “intentionally weird” choices they did with the characters and Peppa, while also digging the set-up for a multiverse crossover event and thought the film’s final battle was “lots of fun”.

Sequel
In the film’s London premiere, Frake-Waterfield announced that a direct sequel was in the “early stages in development” and that would follow the film’s ending. After the film’s successful opening weekend, Lionsgate officially announced the sequel, titled Peppa Pig: Cartoon Wars, with a release date of June 1, 2029, to celebrate the franchise’s 25th anniversary. All the cast of the first two films is expected to return, including Vin Diesel and Robert Downey Jr., as well as Charlie Sheen, reprising his role as Dex Dogtective from Lionsgate’s Foodfight! film series after having a cameo appearance in the ending of World War. In an interview, Frake-Waterfield stated that the film would be a multiverse story as teased in World War and in the announced title, acting as a “massive crossover event for animation”, featuring characters from various animation companies. He also stated that the film would be the last installment in the trilogy.