Say good-bye to The Croods 2. Universal Pictures has officially pulled the plug on this sequel from DreamWorks Animation. The comedy adventure was announced even before the original Croods movie hit theaters in 2013. But now it has been tossed into the dustbin of history.

Universal Pictures Chairman Donna Langley made the announcement to employees at DreamWorks Animation headquarters in Glendale this past Thursday, which came as a shock to many. Production on the film was stopped immediately. Over 30 workers were deep into production on the sequel, which had been launched three and a half years ago. They are all looking for new jobs now.

Langley told those that were being laid off that she hopes to keep them at the company. The hope is to at least shift some of them to other projects that are still happening a DreamWorks Animation, such as Shrek 5. Some of these works may also find themselves shifted into further training or artistic development programs. This info all came from a Universal employee who contacted Variety about the cancelation. That person wishes to remain anonymous.

The Croods followed a prehistoric family living in a particularly dangerous moment in time. Patriarch Grug (Nicolas Cage), his mate, Ugga (Catherine Keener), teenage daughter Eep (Emma Stone), son Thunk (Clark Duke) and feisty Gran (Cloris Leachman) gather food by day and huddle together in a cave at night. When a more evolved caveman named Guy (Ryan Reynolds) arrives on the scene, Grug is distrustful, but it soon becomes apparent that Guy is correct about the impending destruction of their world.

The Croods wasn't a bomb at the box office. It pulled in $587 million worldwide from a $135 million production budget. The cancelation tracks back to Comcast buying DreamWorks in April of this year. This put the hierarchy at Universal in charge of the DreamWorks Animation studio, and sources close to both Universal and DreamWorks suspected that The Croods 2 was going to wind up in the trash.

It is said that Universal and DreamWorks were already considered doing away with the movie even before Comcast entered the picture, and that Universal was just finally carrying out the previous decision to kill the movie. Word of trouble began to spread back in August when the 2017 release date was delayed until 2018.

While there are no plans to utilize the title anytime soon, a source close to Universal said that The Croods is staying in the DreamWorks Animation catalog. And a future movie or TV show could happen at some point. Dawn of the Croods, an animated TV series spin-off, launched Season 2 this past August on Netflix. A third season hasn't been announced at this time.