The Book of Life director Jorge R. Gutierrez has announced he will be teaming up with Reel FX Animation Studios to start work on the sequel whilst attending the Annecy Festival in France.

Related: Preview and Behind the scenes look at The Book of Life

Gutierrez will again be taking the helm on The Book of Life 2 after the original became one of the biggest breakouts for an independent animation. In the first outing of this animated love story we witnessed a love triangle between childhood friends, the sensitive Manola guitar strumming (Diego Luna) and preening Joaquin (Tatum) whose competition for the hand of the vivacious Maria (Zoe Saldana) causes the gods to lay wagers on who will win and, with that, the future of the world.

The sequel came to fore after questions were raised about what happened to the characters after the animation had ended, So Gutierrez felt obliged to bring the story back to life, he said

“The sequel grew from that and people asking what was gonna happen with the characters, what’s gonna happen to the gods? The sequel embraces all these things and, in a weird way, is a continuation of the story with everybody you love from the first movie.

“I am a big fan of romantic movies. I always want to find out what happens afterwards. That’s one question we will ask during the sequel,” Gutierrez went on to add.”

Earning itself a staggering $100.5 million worldwide, The Book of Life reached the heart of audiences which in turn created an incredibly loyal and fanatical fan base with people going as far as to get tattoos of their favourite characters. After designing a Book of Life 2 poster for an art exhibition alongside his wife and art director Paul Sullivan, Gutierrez said: “the fan reaction was insane; I had to keep explaining that it was for an art show,”.

The Book of Life 2

The Commencement of development on “The Book of Life 2,” was revealed at the end of a Work in Progress presentation of Gutierrez’s “Kung Fu Space Punch”.