Franchise: Angry Birds

During development of "The Angry Birds Movie 2", it was decided to break away from the original source material by having the birds and the pigs end their conflict and team up against a greater threat. This was done both in an effort to surprise audiences with a new experience involving the same characters, and as part of an attempt to outdo what was done in the first film thanks to the unprecedented level of freedom that the change made available to them. According to actor Josh Gad, the production team went forward with it not only because they thought the idea was "ingenious", but also because it would be most appropriate given the increasingly polarized political climate at the time, stating:


While not explicitly stated, it's speculated that this change in the story may have also been made in response to theories that its preceding film, "The Angry Birds Movie", contained thinly-veiled political and anti-immigration undertones as an allegory on the European refugee crisis, most notably with the portrayal of the pigs being unintentionally similar to Arab and Muslim terrorist stereotypes. However, it is not likely this was intended by the film's producers as the pigs were actually inspired by the 2009 swine flu epidemic during the original game's development, on top of there being antagonistic, invasive, and explosives-based elements in the pigs and their weaponry dating back to the first game that are crucial to the series' gameplay and story concept, albeit in a less developed state than they are shown in the film.

Matilda from Angry Birds was originally designed as an unnamed male bird, but was changed to female when higher ups at Rovio realized that male birds do not lay eggs. The Valentine's Day season of Angry Birds Seasons gave Matilda a girlfriend, which, after the change, retroactively gave the unintended implication of Matilda being a lesbian, despite actually being straight and later marrying Terence in the film series. When Matilda was redesigned for the 2013 animated webseries Angry Birds Toons, she would gain the pink cheeks of her former girlfriend. Angry Birds Seasons was removed from app stores in 2019, completing the retcon of the girlfriend character. Despite this, the Angry Birds franchise would introduce LGBTQ+ side characters and support LGBTQ+ fan works in later years.

In a 2023 leak of unreleased content from different iOS games, an app titled Angry Birds Island - or alternatively Angry Birds Hatchery - was discovered. The prototype was simply a version of the original Angry Birds with two major differences
•A mode called "Hatchery", which shows an overworld map of an island with a row at the bottom of toys and furniture
•The first two worlds of the original game, but with an option to select from a set of birds, all of which appear to be hybrids of the regular birds
This seemingly implies some kind of pet simulator mode with an egg breeding mechanic, not unlike the Chao Gardens from the Sonic Adventure series. It is unknown if this was planned as an update for Angry Birds or a new spin-off.

As of 2011, Matilda the White Bird was the most popular Angry Bird within Rovio headquarters.