‘Cars’ and ‘Incredibles’ Sequels Announced by Disney-Pixar

Following on the heels of an announcement that 2004’s Brad Bird directed blockbuster The Incredibles will be re-released in 3D, as well as the Disney spinoff Planes being a success with a Planes 2 on the way, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced at a shareholder’s meeting this week that new sequels from Disney/Pixar, specifically Cars 3 and The Incredibles 2 are now in development.

Though no details on the plots or new characters/cast are known at this time, Bird has been confirmed to be working on the story.  Ideally that 3D release of the first film will come around the same time or just before the sequel to give younger people a chance to see both films in theaters.  News on the next installment of Cars was not entirely new – some of the voice actors stirred the rumor mill last October about a new film in development, and such rumors need time to be confirmed, as with a Toy Story 4 – but now with Iger’s announcement it makes it legitimate.  No word if John Lasseter, still one of the main people at Pixar and the director of the past two Cars films, will return in such a creative capacity either.

Concept art for THE GOOD DINOSAUR currently slated for November 2015 release

This further adds to the sequel mill for Disney-Pixar with the follow-up to Finding Nemo, called Finding Dory, which brings back director Andrew Stanton and star Ellen Degeneres to voice the short-term-memory fish.

It should be noted however films from Pixar tend to take a while to be developed, from the story to the characters and especially as with almost every film they try to find new innovations and techniques with their animations, plus there are original Pixar movies on the way as well; a movie called The Good Dinosaur was originally slated for release this year but got pushed back due to story issues.  According to hypable.com, that film is due out late next year, with Dory due out summer of 2016.  This means it could be an original film for 2017 and likely either the next Cars or Incredibles for 2018, or perhaps even later.

The Incredibles grossed 631 million worldwide according to Box Office Mojo, and though the Cars series is not the most successful as far as at the box office – Cars 2, for example, which was the worst critically received film of Pixar’s features and did squeak by with a 559 million worldwide gross, it came after the slew of successes from Up to Toy Story 3 – it is the most profitable as far as toys and merchandising.