Acting as part of a celebration for soaring past $4 billion at the global box office, Disney has flipped open its release calendar once more to pencil in due dates for a trio of Pixar sequels: Cars 3, The Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4.
Now that Ant-Man 2 – officially titled Ant Man and the Wasp – is out in the open and pegged for 2018, the House of Mouse is casting the spotlight towards Pixar’s roster of animations. In order of release, it’s Cars 3 that toplines the starting grid, with the racing sequel now on course to hits theaters on June 16, 2017. It’ll occupy Toy Story 4‘s initial due date, meaning that John Lasseter’s vehicle has slipped to June 15, 2018 to accommodate.
Out of the trifecta, that leaves Brad Bird’s long-gestating The Incredibles 2. As one would expect, moviegoers won’t be seeing Elastigirl, Violet and Jack Jack until June 21, 2019. Even before the sequel’s official announcement during the D23 conference in the summer, it was understood that Bird’s superhero follow-up was simmering in the very early stages of development, and we’re more than happy to see that both Disney and Pixar have carved out a longer lead time for the director to hone his vision.
Animation wasn’t the only focus of today’s Disney blowout, though. Not only did the mega-company quietly slate a trio of untitled Marvel movies for 2020, but the House of Mouse has also staked a claim for at least two live-action fairytale films in that year, while Disney Animation and Pixar will also unveil a film for 2020. Before that, though, Pixar’s Coco now fills the gap of November 22, 2017, leaving Disney Animation’s Gigantic to occupy the March 6, 2018 slot.
Circling back to The Incredibles 2, Brad Bird’s long-awaited superpower sequel may still be a ways away yet, but if anything, today’s announcement just shows the sheer volume of projects cramming up the pipeline for the next half decade.
