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Worldbuilding guesses
The Rock Trolls were victims of Oppressive Fantastic Racism well before the events of the movie
With how the pop trolls considered them evil and the fact that the pop trolls tried to pull the exact plan with the strings in the past it's not much of a stretch that there could've been some sort of troll war that lead to so much animosity and hate especially toward the rock trolls. Perhaps some sort of combination of the 1980's Satanic Panic of Metal music and D&D but done in a way that lead it to a Troll Crusades was what led to generations of Rock Trolls being treated as inferior to the other trolls.- It's mentioned that the Troll Tribes separated when Pop took the Strings and it's implied that it was a long time ago to the point where only a few of the Pop Trolls know about the existence of other tribes so jossed?
- That being said, They still got off better than Disco did.
In addition to being oviparous, trolls also raise their young in their hair like a kangaroo raises a joey in its pouch
Most of the young trolls in the film were seen either in or coming out of, then returning back into their parent's hair. So it's a safe guess that trolls raise their young like this.- Confirmed; most of it was cut from the first movie but there were scenes developed that depicted trolls rearing their young in their hair until a certain age.
The trolls that didn't fit into any particular tribe (i.e the K-Pop, Reggaeton and Smooth Jazz trolls that were hired on as mercenaries) are wielders of a Dangerous Forbidden Technique, or at the very least, the smooth jazz one
For example, smooth jazz seems to have a natural Lotus-Eater Machine and/or Mushroom Samba effect without having a String to amplify it. Something like that would be pretty easy to use to conquer all forms of music; therefore, it would make sense that it would be banned in fear of a repeat of what happened with the strings.- Alternately, they are exploring other realms and are heroes/villains in a different story entirely.
There are more realms with more trolls of different music styles than what the pop trolls saw
There are trolls of all music genres/subgenres, some so far away from pop that they would take forever to get to. A few that the pop trolls missed entirely (and their realms)...- Blues - A hot humid swampy realm where all are trolls have the blues (and always sing about trains). Borders the Rock Realm somewhere to the south.
- Jazz - A strange off kilter realm that looks like a Salvador Dali Painting. Will use anything as instruments, including Umbrellas. Likely borders the Smooth Jazz realm.
- Polka - An Octoberfest-esque land with a king that looks like Weird Al. Likely borders the Country realm.
- There was meant to be a Polka Troll Bounty Hunter at one point but she got scrapped.
- Metal - A Grim Up North realm north of a wall made out of Fire and Ice. Has many different looks for the absurd number of sub-genres in Metal. Obviously borders with Rock and very hard to get to due to extreme conditions.
- Possibly confirmed as Rock N Roll Rules mentions its existence.
- Ska - A deep desert of black and white checkered sand, bordering the Rock Realm in some capacity. Their trolls are a nomadic people who bear an ideology of "PICK IT UP" whenever they feel their time in one place is up.
- Ska-Punk is possibly confirmed to exist in Rock N Roll Rules
- Nu-Disco/French House - Descendants of the Disco tribe who live in futuristic cities deep in the ocean and wear noticeably robotic facemasks, in a mix of EDM and Funk Trolls.
- J-Rock - A subset of Rock Trolls capable of utilizing Ki Manipulation through their riffs.
- Musical Theater - A realm found in caves endemic to the borders between Rock, Classical, and Pop. These caves naturally resemble stage back-stages, and the mouths resemble stages. Their Trolls come in two forms: Cast and Crew, each with vastly different demeanors and societal roles in music-making.
- Alternative - An eclectic tribe of trolls with a music style that’s hard to pin down. They’re descended from trolls of each main genre (mostly Pop and Rock) who had decided to go rogue and explore other sounds.
- Implied as on the BroZone website, it's mentioned that Clay's favourite music is Alternative Rock.
- Dubstep - They are descendants of Reggae and EDM Trolls, but also have a lot of other genres thrown in. They live in a Floating Continent above the Techno realm which is enveloped by a harsh jungle with a rusty and dirty-looking futuristic city in the center. Have alien designs underneath robotic armor and the power of their music and weaponry is comparable to that of the Rock Trolls.
- Folk- A simple village, where instruments are crafted by hand or music is sung without instruments. They seem to be among the oldest of troll tribes.
- Filk- Beyond the lands of Folk, it's essentially a giant 24/7 music festival mixed with Comicon
- Opera - An offshoot of the Classical nation who believe you should learn the words
- Industrial - One of the most advanced Troll kingdoms and is heavily industrialised with large factories dotting their land. They are more dark in appearance and personality than their fellow Techno/Electronic Trolls.
- Punk - A chaotic place ruled by rival gangs. They are anti-establishment and against the Rock Royal Family.
- New Wave - A forest where a large village that takes inspiration from its parent tribes and has a varying style of architecture and culture. Their Trolls are the most varied in appearance due to their ancestors mingling and having children together.
- Garage - A collection of houses with garages. Much of their population are young adults and teens and they are highly aggressive.
We never saw the whole truth of what caused the genres to separate.
Scrapbooks may be made by the victors, but we have no reason to believe that the Funk Trolls' Hall of Records was any more or less accurate than King Peppy's retelling; since there don't appear to be any survivors from that age, first-hand accounts probably don't exist. According to Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, Pop Trolls have a nebulous sense of personal ownership: With the exception of Branch, they can acknowledge that something belongs to someone else while seeing nothing wrong with "borrowing" it, expecting to "share" their possessions in the same way. The original event is likely a result of cultural miscommunication: The Pop Trolls applied this not just to the Strings, which they considered communal to all genres (and which may have been the case at that time), but to the pop-music habit of taking aspects from other genres. Being Innocently Insensitive, the Pop Trolls didn't realize that others might see their actions as appropriation or a power-grab, which is why King Peppy's version doesn't single out a specific genre: From their point of view, it was as if the conflict spontaneously erupted. They might even have seen their actions as a compliment - why "borrow" something unless you really like it? - which made them even less able to understand why the other genres would be angry. The other genres saw the Pop Trolls as making a deliberate play for dominance, not helped by pop music's tendency to assimilate other types in a way that might have looked like the Pop Trolls were trying to replace the originals with Popified versions. From that point of view, the other genres taking their Strings and isolating themselves was a logical choice when the other option was to lose what made their music and cultures unique. Had the Classical Trolls received more screen time, they would have been shown to be arrogant, elitist snobs who dismiss every other genre as "soulless no-effort garbage".
If you go in the YouTube comment section of any classical piece, you'll almost always find comments bashing modern day music for having "no effort", and in general it's a stereotype of classical music fans to have the mindset that classical music is superior to modern music, so it's very likely the Classical Trolls were similar to the Rock Trolls in their Fantastic Racism (although less fanatical about it). This led to them suffering a Break the Haughty moment when the Rock Trolls destroy their city and kidnap them, which is why they were so willing to team up with the other genres to get their music back.- Jossed as they seem proud but friendly as they welcomed Pennywhistle into their home.
The Bergens were the reason the Rock Trolls didn't try to reunite the Strings back when Thrash was their King.
With a bunch of troll eaters around, the Rock Trolls decided their goal wasn't worth the risk of being eaten. The Bergens were essentially Conflict Killers to the troll war mentioned at the top of this page.- Seemingly jossed as in Trollstopia, Val is confused about what a Bergen is.
The K-Pop Trolls branched out in protest against their King stealing the Strings.
Not approving his plan to impose one music genre over other styles, the K-Pop Trolls even helped the other trolls to recover their Strings. The current K-Pop Trolls didn't realize they were betraying their ancestors' memories until Branch talked them out of serving Barb.- This seems unlikely, given that the theft of the Strings seems like an allegory for pop music's tendency to borrow/steal from other genres and K-Pop is as derivative if not more so than the rest of pop music; it also seems likely that the sub-genres formed after the resulting war, so it's much more likely that K-Pop was born of Pop trolls that split off after the war, and their bid to capture Poppy is their attempt to gain the same recognition/prominence as the major genres.
Potential guesses for future installments
The third movie will be a metaphor for predatory recording companies.
A non-troll race (not unlike the bergens) will seek to make deals with the various troll tribes in order to get their music. At first glance, it seems like a fair deal, that the trolls are getting fair compensation for their performances, until it's discovered that the villains are stealing their music for their own selfish ends. The only way to defeat them is for the tribes to unite against their common foe.- It might address hold-outs from the various factions who don't like the idea of different Genres mixing, or who might still bear grudges from the long period of separation. They might make the deals with the record company stand-ins behind the backs of their respective leaders/the majority, seeking to prove that their own music is the best or to put themselves ahead of the other Genres, only to find that hiding things from/competing against each other made it easier for the villains to take advantage of them. Only after they come clean and realize that they're stronger together can they get back their music and stop whatever nefarious plot the villains have.
- Mostly jossed as the main villains are Velvet and Veneer in Trolls 3 and while they do seek to steal Floyd's talent for their own ends, they aren't part of a recording company and the other tribes aren't involved.
There'll be a spinoff Prequel starring the Bounty Hunters
The film will focus on what they were up before the World Tour and expand the subgenres and the Bounty Hunters' backstory. The majority of it will take place in the "hinterlands" which is mentioned to be the homeland of the Bounty Hunters with the film being subjected to Cerebus Syndrome with a darker side of the Trolls world being shown and the Bounty Hunters who will be further developed chasing a legitimately dangerous criminal. Hypothetical villains for the spinoff -- The scrapped Bounty Hunters being subjected to Refitted For Prequel and used as rivals of the Bounty Hunters or henchmen of the Big Bad.
- The Party Crashers subjected to The Bus Came Back and are now targeting the hinterlands after being kicked out of each Troll Kingdom. Bonus points if Archer shows up and aids the Bounty Hunters.
- A subgenre Troll who is trying to take over the hinterlands and prove their music is superior.
- The Rock Trolls again. This time, it will be a subgenre Rock Troll that has stolen the Rock String and is trying to take over the Hinterlands with it.
The Prequel will end with the Bounty Hunters having grudging respect for each other and after a Time Skip, will have the Bounty Hunters learning about Barb's World Tour.
The diner that appeared in deleted scenes will be used and have the scrapped Bounty Hunters be residing there along with some new subgenre Trolls.
More information about the history of the Troll Tribes and what led to the subgenres forming will be revealed at the beginning of the movie via narration;
- It will be revealed that the subgenre Trolls were treated as inferior by the main six Troll Tribes as they came into existence after the Strings were discovered. Following the events of Pop's theft of the String, the other 5 Troll Tribes tried to force the subgenre Trolls to give up their music and conform, resulting in the majority of the Subgenre Tribes deciding to leave the Troll Kingdom and settle in the hinterlands. Out of anger, the Rock Troll elder or one of his descendants ordered the subgenres of Rock to invade the hinterlands and force the subgenre Trolls to conform to their ideals, resulting in generations of subgenre Trolls being targeted and oppressed for refusing to conform.
Korean (K-Pop), Latin (Reggaeton) and Alpine (Yodelling) mythologies will be involved somehow in the film with mentions to them and mythical creatures in those mythologies appearing or being mentioned.
A future movie will focus on DJ Suki and her reaction to the events of the World Tour
In a future movie, DJ Suki will be subjected to Ascended Extra and become the protagonist with Trollex being the deuteragonist. The movie will focus on the Techno Trolls and their culture with CJ, Synth and Laguna making appearances and new sub genres being introduced.DJ Suki will get a letter from Poppy about how much things have changed, detailing the World Tour and BroZone's reunion. She then decides to return to Pop Village and meets the Tribe Leaders including Trollex who she has a Meet Cute with. She meets up with Poppy and the two catch up. Suki privately confesses that she's fearing that she has lost her touch when it comes to DJing so Poppy proposes that she goes to Techno Reef to branch out and innovate. Suki does so and is given a tour of Techno Reef by Trollex and the homes of other subgenres of Techno, with plenty of Ship Tease.
As a Running Gag, people will think that Suki and Trollex are dating, only for them to both deny it with heavy blushing. For extra hilarity, the villain/s will join in on this.Hypothetical villains for this movie.
- A trio of Rockstar sisters who'll be voiced by "Haim" and believe that their music is superior. As a nod to their song Rock N Roll Rules, their minions will mostly consist of the subgenres of Rock mentioned in the song. Their ultimate goal will be to take over the Troll Kingdoms and force the other Trolls to become Rock Trolls. They will employ the scrapped Bounty Hunters to hunt down DJ Suki and Trollex who are trying to stop their nefarious plans.
- One of their minions would be a Heavy Metal Troll played by Jack Black who will act as a comedic sidekick for the three.
- A DJ from Techno who seeks to use a powerful artefact to prove Techno's superiority.
- A Classical Troll who is heavy prejudiced against Techno, deriding it as 'not proper music' to the point of wanting to destroy it.
- The scrapped Bounty Hunters being Refitted for Sequel and working as henchmen of the Big Bad or Big Bads. Along the way, they'll pull a Heel–Face Turn and help stop the villains.
The film will be a case of Surprisingly Realistic Outcome as just because the Tribe Leaders and most of their subjects accept differences doesn't mean that everyone does.
The film won't end with Suki and Trollex dating but will leave it open for future films to explore.
In The Stinger, Poppy will talk with Branch about DJ Suki's visit to Techno Reef and how it has inspired her to start a project that will bring the Troll Tribes closer together. She calls it... Trollstopia
Others
The climactic musical number isn't a Deus ex Machina; the gathered trolls just went through a very quick, very brief Heroic BSoD.
The first movie established that the vibrancy of a troll's colors is proportionate to their energy/willpower/inner well-being: Branch's muted colors are due to the tragedy in his past and years of cynicism and become brighter when he regains his optimism while Poppy loses her colors after her Despair Event Horizon and regains them after she regains hope. Seeing the Strings destroyed sent the gathered trolls over the Horizon since they believed that their ability to make music was dependent on the Strings; their colors returned when they realized they could make music without the Strings, confirming that they wouldn't have to return to the primordial existence of silence and lack of color.