Clifford is kicking up his paws and sticking around for a while. After the success of Clifford the Big Red Dog recently premiering in theaters and on Paramount+, Paramount Pictures has announced that a sequel is officially in the works. This follows a 5-day opening that brought in $22.2 million with many more tuning in at home to watch the family comedy, its current haul up to $34.5 million. All things considered, the studio is very happy with the results.

According to THR, Paramount hopes to bring back the same creative team that worked on the first Clifford the Big Red Dog to bring the sequel to life. Beyond that, there’s no word yet on who will be returning for the cast and crew, but no major changes are anticipated. The first movie starred Darby Camp, Jack Whitehall, John Cleese, and Tony Hale. Walt Becker directed the movie with Jordan Kerner and Iole Lucchese producing.

Jay Scherick, David Ronn, and Blaise Hemingway penned the Clifford the Big Red Dog screenplay with a story by Justin Malen and Ellen Rapoport. The movie is based on the original children’s book series by Norman Bridwell which follows a young girl with a pet dog who’s ten feet tall and bright red in color. It had previously inspired various cartoon shows and even an animated movie, but this is the first live-action interpretation of the iconic character.

“Remember, we're taking a beloved line drawing in black-and-white with the red on Clifford and turning him into something completely similar in terms of the emotionality,” producer Jordan Kerner told Screen Rant. “We aged up Emily Elizabeth a little bit, because she's moved from Birdwell Island to Manhattan and lives in a very diverse community, and she's facing all the struggles that the middle school kids face.”

He added, “We're taking that and turning Clifford into a live dog. All of us have these dogs - or cats and whatever the creature is in our lives - that we love so much and relate to so much, that we wanted Clifford to feel absolutely real. From an emotional standpoint, from a comedic standpoint, and from an adventure standpoint - we wanted him to be both true in terms of color and size with the Birdwell books. He ranged from 8 feet to about 35 feet, and our Clifford is between 10 and 12 feet.”

“The suspension of disbelief in our movie is this magical realism and the wish of having a red puppy,” director Walt Becker also said. “And then having her wish create this growth, and now he's 10 feet. You want to add an extra layer of now you have a cartoon in a live-action world, and how are we supposed to feel? We're really on that journey.”

Clifford the Big Red Dog premiered earlier this month domestically and will start hitting international markets in December. The movie will be shown in France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, Brazil, and Mexico at the start of the month, followed by Korean and Australian releases on Dec. 29. Japan will show Clifford to audiences on Jan. 21, 2022. This news comes to us from The Hollywood Reporter.