The Smurfs 3 is a proposed third installment in the live-action/CGI animated Smurfs franchise. The announcement was made about two weeks after The Smurfs 2 was released in theaters. It was originally set for a release in 2015 but was cancelled. On May 10, 2012, two weeks after they announced production of The Smurfs 2, Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation were already developing a script for The Smurfs 3 with writers Karey Kirkpatrick and Chris Poche. Hank Azaria, who played Gargamel in the first two films, revealed that the third film "might actually deal with the genuine origin of how all these characters ran into each other way back when.". Plans for a second sequel were later scrapped, with a completely computer-animated reboot to be produced instead.