Well, this is a surprise, especially since Jim Carrey hasn’t had another role this decade beyond Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik in the “Sonic The Hedgehog” movies. THR reports that Carrey will return to one of the most beloved roles of his career for a new sequel to “How The Grinch Stole Christmas,” and director Ron Howard will be back in the director’s chair, too. The reason Universal wants to greenlight this sequel? Probably because the original film from 2000 was the biggest box office hit that year, making $260 million domestically and $345 million globally.

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Howard’s Imagine Entertainment partner Brian Grazer will also be back to produce the sequel, which suggests that the studio wants to keep this project in a similar creative vein to the original. That would, ostensibly, include Carrey wearing his notoriously difficult Grinch makeup again. The actor told Vulture last year that he threatened to quit the film on the first day and return his $20 million fee due to how long and taxing the makeup process was: nearly eight hours. Carrey eventually relented, but not without guidance from a man who trains CIA agents to withstand torture, and after the makeup routine was reduced to three hours instead of eight. After all that frustration, it was worth it for Carrey to stick out the process, as Rick Baker and Gail Rowell-Ryan went on to win the Best Makeup Oscar for their work on the film.

Three writers who are veterans of adapting Dr. Seuss for the big screen are on board for the “Grinch” sequel, too. Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer, and David Mandel will join forces on the script; the trio all worked on the 2003 film “The Cat In The Hat,” starring Mike Myers. Berg, Schaffer, and Mandel will need to hatch an original story idea for the sequel, however. The 2000 film already adapted the 1957 illustrated story, with plenty of homages to Chuck Jones’ classic 1966 animated special, featuring voice work by Boris Karloff. Add in the 2018 animated film that stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the Grinch, and that’s three separate adaptations of the same story. This “Grinch” movie will need to be an all-new concept if it’s going to repeat the 2000 film’s success.

And that movie remains a modern Christmas classic, two and a half decades after its original release. In fact, Nielsen’s ratings for the top 10 most-streamed holiday movies of the past five years rank it at #2 overall with 962 million minutes viewed, behind only “Home Alone.” That’s considerable endurance in today’s movie climate, and another major reason why Universal, Howard, and Grazer want to make a follow-up. As per Howard, he told THR at the UCLA Entertainment Symposium that a new “Grinch” movie was “something we’ve thought about for a long time, and you know what, it’s an idea that got all five or six of the brain trust excited. So it’s worth a try.” The sequel will likely be Howard’s next film after “Alone At Dawn,” an upcoming military drama over at Amazon MGM that stars Adam Driver and Anne Hathaway.

Stay tuned for more details on the “Grinch” sequel as they arrive. As for a release date? Thanksgiving/Christmas 2028 feels like a safe bet.