Deltarune

Deltarune is a 2036 live action/computer animated comedy drama fantasy adventure film, which is based on the original game by Toby Fox. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it serves as a soft reboot to the Undertale film series. Directed by Adam Wingard, and written by Eric Roth, Josh Friedman, and Rebecca Hall, based off a story by Roth and Matt Braly, it stars Nick Robinson, Hailee Steinfeld, Elijah Wood, Michael Cera, Brenda Song, Josh Dallas, Giancarlo Esposito, Rhys Ifans, Alan Tudyk, Yahul Abdul Mateen II, and Luke Grimes. Although some characters from the original movies appear in this movie, the film is still considered a reboot according to Fox.

The film is set in an alternate universe where the human and monster war never happened, the film's story follows a human named Kris and a monster named Susie as they fall into another world full of people called Darkners where they are accompanied by Ralsei, a prince of the dark, Noelle, a classmate of Kris and Susie, and Lancer, a jester who is the son of an abusive king, who must stop the evil of this land, which seeps into their world.

The film grossed $412 million at the box office and gained mostly positive reviews from critics and fans of the original game, who praised the cast, writing, direction, and more.

Plot
The movie begins the story as Kris, a human child living in a village mostly made up of monster residents, with their adoptive mother Toriel, who is also a monster. Toriel drops Kris off at school, where Kris attends a class taught by Alphys. Kris and Susie, a delinquent monster classmate, are sent to get chalk for the blackboard. Upon entering the supply closet, both of them are pulled into the "Dark World". There, they meet Ralsei, a prince of the dark, who tells them that the three of them are heroes destined to close the Dark Fountain (a geyser of dark energy) to restore balance to that world. However, the King has seized control of the Dark World and is determined to spread darkness.

Susie chooses not to help, only wanting to return to her own world. Before she can leave, the three encounter the King's son Lancer, who tries to stop them from proceeding with various poorly thought-out plans. Susie eventually decides to join Lancer, leaving Kris and Ralsei on their own. As Kris and Ralsei make their way to the King's castle, Susie befriends Lancer, and the four ultimately become a team. Upon realizing that they will have to confront the King, Lancer runs off to the castle and arranges for the King's henchmen to throw Kris, Ralsei, and Susie into the dungeon.

Susie escapes the dungeon and confronts Lancer, who explains he wanted to keep Susie and the King from hurting each other. Susie promises Lancer she won't hurt the King. Kris, Susie and Ralsei go to the top of the castle and confront the King in battle. Eventually, the King falls to the ground in exhaustion and Ralsei takes pity on him, healing the King. However, this is revealed to be a ruse as the King quickly incapacitates the three heroes, threatening to kill them all. If the player has resolved enemy encounters without violence throughout the game, Lancer turns the King's men against him and imprisons him, taking his father's place as king of the Dark World. Otherwise, Susie subdues the King using Ralsei's Pacify spell.

Kris closes the Dark Fountain so that they can return to their own world. There, Susie says goodbye, expressing interest in returning to the Dark World. The player can explore the town before having Kris go home to bed. That night, Kris shakes in bed, then falls on the floor and limps to the center of the room. Kris tears into their chest and rips out their heart-shaped SOUL, throwing it into a birdcage in the corner of the room. The player can move the SOUL around inside the birdcage but cannot do anything else. Kris draws a knife and turns toward the viewer. They smile, with their right eye flashing red.

Light World

 * Nick Robinson as Kris-
 * Hailee Steinfeld as Susie-
 * Brenda Song as Noelle-
 * Josh Dallas as Birdly-
 * Justin Felbinger as Monster Kid-
 * Tiffany Haddish as Catti-
 * Patton Oswalt as Jockington-
 * David Cross as Snowy-
 * Charlene Yi as Temmie-
 * Luke Grimes as Asriel-
 * Jessica Chastain as Toriel-
 * Idris Elba as Asgore-
 * Stephanie Beatriz as Alphys-
 * Kimiko Glenn as Myra
 * Zach Woods as Rudolph Holliday

Dark World

 * Elijah Wood as Ralsei-
 * Michael Cera as Lancer-
 * Giancarlo Esposito as King-
 * Rhys Ifans as Rouls Kaard-
 * Alan Tudyk as Jevil-
 * Yahul Abdul Mateen II as Seam-
 * Matthew Rhys as the King of Diamonds-
 * Keira Knightley as the Queen of Hearts-
 * Rita Ora as the Queen of Clubs-
 * Anthony Hopkins as Clover-

Plans for a sequel
On February 4, 2032, Phil Lord, the co-producer of the Undertale film series, said at the San Diego Comic Con said they had thoughts of adapting Toby Fox's sister game Deltarune, which had served as the "spiritual successor" to Undertale. Lord and Christopher Miller said to The Verge that the film would be a bit darker than the previous installments and also will be having full animated sequences, due to the nature of the game being edgier than Undertale. However, after the release of Undertale: Beyond the Void, Lord and his partner Christopher Miller said they had no intention of returning to the series, since so much can be done which a game like Undertale. James Wan and Mary Parent also agreed to have no intention of coming back. Soon after, Sony Pictures executive Matt Tolmach said in an interview with Collider that there were plans for another sequel, but they felt it was jumping the shark. Tolmach said:

"...we would've had Frisk and Leon all grown up and travel to the multiverse with the help of a version of Sans called Ink Sans. The film would've used several "Sanses" based on the ones people have made (for example Underfell and Underswap). Unfortunately, this did not work out for us.""

Thomas Tull, co-founder of Legendary Pictures, said they commissioned writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns to make a 4th 2-part Undertale movie called: Undertale: The Last Soul. In it, Frisk fights the soul of fear named Bettina Noire, who had come back since the Elder Mages' magic was destroyed. It would've been the definitive ending to the series and have all the characters killed off, except for Chara (who had brought back by Frisk), Asriel, Papyrus, Toriel, and Undyne. In summer of 2022, Mark Romanek was attached to direct, with additional rewrites by Hampton Fancher. This was cancelled due to budgetary constraints and negative reactions to the public.

Development
In March 2023, rumors were appearing that Netflix was looking to reboot the series with Wan coming back to produce. Fox, at first, denied these claims, since he had never heard that they had plans for a new film. More details revealed that this new movie was going to adapt Deltarune, Undertale's "sequel" and it would star Ansel Elgort. 5 months later, in August, Netflix confirmed these rumors on Deadline, with Indian Paintbrush now producing alongside Simon Kinberg's company, Genre Films, and it would be a live action movie with animated segments in it. Sony would also help out on the film.

Finding a director proved to be difficult. Andy Serkis wanted to direct the film, but thought his vision clashed with the ones at Netflix, so he changed his mind. Jonathan Liebesman was in talks to helm the project, but scheduling conflicts made him unable to proceed further. Other directors included Miguel Sapochnik, Robert Eggers, Barry Jenkins, Taika Waititi, Joseph Kosinski, and Chris McKay. Finally, after a long search, Adam Wingard was hired.

Animation directors were easier, however, as they got both Joaquim Dos Santos, the creator of Voltron: Legendary Defender and the director of Spider Man: Across the Spiderverse and Madeline Sharafian, the director of the Pixar Sparkshorts movie, Burrow. At one point, Vivienne Medrano was also considered.

Writing
By March 19, Matt Braly, an animator and writer who is best known for making Amphibia, were in talks to write the script. Braly envisioned it as more of a comedy than a straightforward fantasy adventure, so he used a lot of his signature writing in the rough draft. The script would've also included Gaster and Sans but was scrapped. Eric Roth came in to add more story, like clues about Kris' backstory, the romance between Susie and Noelle, and talks of another knight. On June 8, Rebecca Hall was hired for one more rewrite, changing things up about the main characters and Ralsei, and Josh Friedman combined all these ideas together into a script that the producers and director liked.

Casting
Nick Robinson was cast as Kris in July, along with Luke Grimes as Asriel in November 24. A month later, Michael Cera and Giancarlo Esposito joined the cast as both Lancer and King. On January 2024, it was announced that Hailee Steinfeld and Omar Sy had been cast for Susie and Rouls Kaard, respectively. It was also announced that Matthew Rhys, Keira Knightley, and Rita Ora, would be playing the King of Diamonds, the Queen of Hearts, and the Queen of Spades.

On April 4 2034, Deadline Hollywood confirmed more casting, including Elijah Wood playing Ralsei, Yahul Abdul Mateen II as Seam, Alan Tudyk as Jevil, and Josh Dallas as Birdly. A month later, more actors from the first and second movies, like Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba would be reprising their roles for the movie. Kimiko Glenn as Myra, a new character Matt Braly wrote into the script for a contest, and Brenda Song as Noelle was announced later on, as well as Anthony Hopkins as a respective cameo.

Filming and animation
Filming began to take place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in May 28, especially in the Point Grey Secondary School for the school in the movie. It switched to Los Angeles later on for Kris' house. Filming wrapped up on November 3. Unlike the previous movies, Blur Studio, who did all the animation for the movie, wasn't involved, although Tim Miller stayed as an executive producer. Instead, the animation was split into two groups: MPC Films, who did the animation for Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, The Lion King, and the Godzilla movies, and Titmouse, Inc. MPC did all the live action sequences for the film, with Joel MacDonald and Laura Muro Javaloyes supervising it. Titmouse, however, was to create all the animated sequences with its founder Chris Prynoski leading it. Concept artist Guillaume Singelin drew some character designs resembling that of Steven Universe.