Nothing warms our hearts quite like a new Pixar movie. A specific sort of excitement accompanies each new release from the animation studio. The anticipation for Pixar’s stories rivals that of nearly any other new movie release. Thanks to a commitment to technical craft (they’re always pushing technological boundaries) and the delicate art of storytelling, Pixar movies have a magic that is unique to the movies.
After leaning heavily on sequels for several years — between 2016 and 2019 COCO was the lone original Pixar movie, surrounded by the sequels FINDING DORY, CARS 3, THE INCREDIBLES 2, and TOY STORY 4 — we've seen the studio swing back towards original stories. What does the future hold for Pixar now?
In 2023 and 2024 two new original movies are coming, and there's also a sequel set for one of the studio's most moving movies. Here’s what we know about all of Pixar’s new movies.
Elemental
The next Pixar release is ELEMENTAL, which is set in a city where fire, water, land, and air residents live together. Ember, a fiery young woman, and Wade, a go-with-the-flow guy, are about to discover something elemental: How much they actually have in common. Leah Lewis voices Ember and Mamoudou Athie voices Wade in this movie directed by Peter Sohn (THE GOOD DINOSAUR). ELEMENTAL opens on June 16, 2023.
Elio
We don't know much about Pixar's next new movie yet, but the concept is good. The title character in ELIO is a boy who finds himself transported across the galaxy & mistaken for the intergalactic Ambassador for our planet Earth. Yonas Kibreab ("Obi-Wan Kenobi") voices Elio, while America Ferrera ("Superstore," "Ugly Betty") voices his mother, Olga Solis, whose job involves translating messages from space. Adrian Molina (COCO) directs. ELIO opens on March 1, 2024.
Inside Out 2
All we know about INSIDE OUT 2 is that Amy Poehler will reprise the role of Joy. Presumably, she will once again be the Joy who is among the emotions living in a young woman named Riley — but if so, we don't know how old Riley will be in this sequel, much less what other emotions will be vying for influence over her actions. Kelsey Mann, who made Pixar's short PARTY CENTRAL, directs from a script by the original movie's writer, Meg LeFauve. INSIDE OUT 2 opens on June 14, 2024.
What's Coming Up In 2025 And Beyond?
After these three movies, Pixar will have more original films coming in 2025 and beyond. TURNING RED director Domee Shi and LUCA director Enrico Casarosa have both said they are developing new original stories.
And while SOUL director Pete Docter has been pretty busy working as Pixar’s chief creative officer, we'll probably see a new movie from him a few years from now, too. In 2016, Pixar president Jim Morris said that the studio would primarily focus on original stories after TOY STORY 4, and that has certainly been the case. LIGHTYEAR and the upcoming INSIDE OUT 2 are the two sequels out of eight movies released or announced following TOY STORY 4. (And LIGHTYEAR is arguably also an original movie rather than a sequel.)
Franchise Favorites
But that doesn’t mean that franchises will be wholly abandoned. The recent consolidation of the Walt Disney Company emphasized the company’s stable of “franchises” as one of the driving financial forces going forward. That means that certain series will almost certainly be revisited.
INSIDE OUT is the most obvious example now. It also isn’t outside the realm of possibility for a third INCREDIBLES movie to appear eventually, especially after the sequel proved to be a runaway smash. And the worlds that Pixar creates are so rich and deep that they could easily spawn a sequel or spin-off, whether from COCO, RATATOUILLE, or BRAVE, for starters. We just know that, whatever Pixar comes up with, we’ll be there.
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All images courtesy of Pixar.