Nick Park rose to fame as the creator of accident-prone pooch Gromit and his faithful human companion Wallace, but that shouldn’t detract from the all-around wonderfulness of his other plaything, Shaun the Sheep. A curious barnyard mute with a taste for hijinks and impromptu adventure, Shaun got his own feature film in 2015, wherein he and his buddies ventured into the city to rescue their beloved farmer after a fit of amnesia convinces him that he’s actually a celebrity hairdresser. Critical praise, coupled with a robust take at the box-office, ensured that it wouldn’t be too long until audiences cross paths with Shaun again.

To mix a metaphor: for these sheep, the chickens have come home to roost. Deadline reports today that Aardman Animation, the house behind 2015’s Shaun the Sheep as well as Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, will soon begin production on a sequel featuring Shaun and his cronies. Aiming to get in gear shortly after the new year, original co-director Richard Starzak will return credited as the sole director for the new film, as will producer Paul Kewley. Though no additional details have been revealed as of yet, Deadline quotes a description of the film as “epic” and “hilarious.”

This news comes as another good get for Aardman Animation as they ready a different project with plenty of promise, the prehistoric comedy Early Man. Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston have already signed on to voice a pair of cavemen who inadvertently invent “football” (or as we Yanks call it, “soccer”) in order to stage a coup in their tribe. But with that movie’s release slated for 2018, and pre-production on Shaun the Sheep 2 only getting started in January, it could be a while before we’re all reunited with stop-motion’s fuzziest stars.

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