Actor Ke Huy Quan says kids now want pet snakes thanks to his Zootopia 2 role

NEW YORK – Ke Huy Quan’s first acting job came at age 12, when he played the precocious sidekick Short Round in the adventure film Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom (1984).

The role forever linked him to Indiana Jones, the whip-cracking archaeologist – played by Hollywood actor Harrison Ford – who famously hates snakes.

And so did Quan – which makes his role in the animated hit movie Zootopia 2 (2025), where he voices the friendly snake Gary, a small cosmic joke.

“I never thought I would get to play the animal that Indiana Jones feared the most,” the Vietnamese-American star says at a screening in New York earlier in 2026.

Now streaming on Disney+, the sequel to the 2016 blockbuster Zootopia returns to a bustling metropolis where prey and predator animals live side by side.

Quan voices Gary De’Snake, a pit viper on the run from rabbit Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), two officers from Zootopia’s police department.

After months of promoting the movie, which opened in cinemas worldwide in November, and handling a few real snakes along the way, Quan’s feelings about these creatures have changed.

“Before I did this, I was deathly afraid of snakes,” says the 54-year-old, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the action comedy Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022).

“But after this journey, I’ve grown more comfortable. In fact, during our press tour, I held two snakes up close,” he says proudly. “I’m beginning to fall in love with them.”

And so have some young fans of Zootopia 2, whose US$1.86 billion (S$2.37 million) global box-office haul makes it the top-grossing animated movie in Hollywood history, and the second-highest-grossing animated film of all time, after China’s Ne Zha 2 (2025).

Parents come up to Quan and tell him their children now want snakes of their own.

“A lot of my friends, after they see Zootopia 2, say, ‘Ke, thanks to you, my daughter now wants a pet snake,’” says the star, who appeared in the fantasy comedy American Born Chinese (2023) and Season 2 of the Marvel superhero series Loki (2021 to 2023).

Snakes, Quan believes, are often misunderstood.

“It’s hard to be a snake. There’s this preconceived notion of who Gary is, but once you meet him, you find out he’s this big-hearted guy.

“And I love the message of the character, which is that if we just take enough time to understand each other’s stories, fear goes away, and that’s how we really connect.”

Quan reveals that American film-makers Yvett Merino, who produced the movie, and Jared Bush and Byron Howard, who co-directed, cast him after seeing him on the talk show The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (2015 to present).

The head animator took the audio from that appearance “and animated Gary De’Snake over me”.

“Then he showed it to Yvett, Jared and Byron, and they said, ‘Yes, that’s Gary.’”

But Quan was new to voice work and found it challenging.

“Because there’s no physical set or interaction with other actors – you’re in the booth alone with your director.

“But Jared and Byron are just geniuses. And the over 700 animators who brought this movie to life – their work is just as important, if not more important, than mine,” adds Quan, who is married to Echo Quan, a film-industry professional and translator he met in Hong Kong.

Voice acting can also be sweaty work.

“In the recording booth, there’s what’s called an effects bar, which is like a lightsabre you hold, push and pull to get the sound you want.

“Every time I do effect sounds, I’m covered in sweat – that’s how hard it is. And then Jared and Yvett would come and give me a hug, and I’d be so self-conscious,” he recalls.

Zootopia 2 is also the top-grossing Disney animated film of all time, and Quan says the Disney connection brings him great joy.

“When I was a kid, I used to watch movies like this, and they made a huge impact in my life and shaped who I am as an adult.

“And because there are such wonderful themes in this movie, I hope, for kids who fall in love with it, it can have a positive influence on their lives.”