Frozen garnered some major praise from viewers and critics for featuring a Disney princess that doesn't need a Prince Charming to save her or sweep her off her feet. And despite some calls from fans for Elsa to have a girlfriend, it seems that Frozen 2 won't give Elsa a girlfriend or boyfriend, and it's for one simple reason — she's just not ready for one.
In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, writer-director Jennifer Lee explained why the sequel to Disney's enormously successful winter film won't feature a love interest for Elsa. According to Lee, the filmmakers spent time journaling and taking "pretty intense personality tests" for each character in order to determine the next moves for our beloved princesses and their trusty friends, and they simply just didn't think that Elsa was in the right place for a romantic relationship.
"We found this is a woman who wasn't ready for a relationship at all," Lee explained to ET. "She's carrying a lot of pressure and the weight of her kingdom on her shoulders and struggling with this call for her powers. That's where she was, so for us, it really hadn't come up in terms of what fit with where the story was growing. And we knew the end we wanted for her. So it just didn't fit with where she was in her life."
Elsa does, in fact, have some more pressing things to be concerned about in Frozen 2. The trailer for the highly anticipated sequel shows Elsa as she's forced to venture outside of Arendelle, in order to save her kingdom from danger, and confront some huge mysteries about her past. Joined by her sister Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven, Elsa will encounter some dangerous, but epic-looking battles along the way, and even meet new friends, which could both help or hurt them.
Despite romance being the furthest thing from Elsa's mind, Lee didn't exactly put down the possibility that she would receive a love interest in a future movie. "I don't know if it'll fit in the future. We haven't asked that question, and I'm not stretching past Frozen 2 about what happens to these characters in their lives," she told ET. "But it's just not where she was now."
After the first movie was released, fans who identified with Elsa's independence and strength called for her character to get a girlfriend in future movies. Some fans even interpreted the Oscar-winning track "Let It Go" to be a coming out anthem. The movement gained so much traction that Lee became aware of it, and spoke openly about the idea of Elsa having a same-sex relationship. “Where we’re going with it, we have tons of conversations about it, and we’re really conscientious about these things,” Lee said in a 2018 interview with The Huffington Post.
Although fans might be disappointed by Elsa's lack of a love interest in Frozen 2, if the character wasn't ready for a relationship, then it's best not to force it. Frozen made a point of not falling in the Prince Charming love story trope, and it sounds like this tradition will only continue.
