Frozen 2 post-credits scene explained

In the footage, which appears after audiences have enjoyed various cover versions of Frozen 2’s soundtrack playing over the credits, we catch up with Josh Gad’s living snowman Olaf, who is hanging out in an underground ice cavern following the events of the new movie.

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It quickly emerges that Olaf has been using his ability to reshape his body to retell the story of Frozen 2 to his offscreen audience (in a direct callback to a scene in the new sequel where he retells the original Frozen plot to new characters), concluding with his return to life after briefly flurrying away due to Elsa’s (Idina Menzel) near-death experience – a fact that is relevant to his audience, he notes, because it means they’re alive too.

It’s then revealed that Olaf’s audience is none other than the enormous, brutish snowman creation Marshmallow whom Elsa created as a guard in the first film and hundreds of mini Snowmen, called Snowgies, who now live with him.

“We live! We live!” cries Marshmallow as the scene fades away. “Good story!!”

And if you’re wondering where on Earth those little Snowmen characters came from, well, they appeared in 2015 short Frozen Fever, in a storyline where Elsa’s bad cold led her to accidentally conjure up the little creatures whenever she sneezed.

At the conclusion of that storyline the mischievous Snowgies ended up departing to live with Marshmallow in Elsa’s ice fortress (also glimpsed briefly during the main action of Frozen 2) – and now, it’s clear that since that time Olaf has kept in regular touch with his icy brethren.

The post-credits scene also closely follows a similar scene hidden at the end of the first Frozen, which saw Marshmallow first take up residence in Elsa's palace.

In other words, Frozen 2’s post-credits gag is a bit of a deep cut for the hardcore fans in a similar way to how Marvel movies slip the biggest Easter Eggs into their post-credits scenes. At least Frozen Fever is short enough to easily catch up on…

Frozen 2 is in cinemas now