Pixar may be cooking up an onslaught of original feature films beyond 2019, but make no mistake, The Incredibles 2 remains one of the most eye-catching releases on the studio’s current slate.
It’s earmarked for launch on June 21, 2019 – three long, long years away – but that hasn’t stopped director Brad Bird from dropping piecemeal hints here and there. The latest of which comes to us via Entertainment Weekly, where Bird noted that the sequel is “very actively moving, and we’re excited about it. [We’re] trying to take it in some new directions.”
Don’t read into that “new directions” part too much, however; the filmmaker is referring more to the difficult balancing act that comes hand-in-hand with crafting a sequel of any kind. Bird clarified the comment as so: “Hopefully it’s the same characters and feel, but going in a new direction. I mean, that’s the trick with a sequel. It’s repeating yourself, without repeating yourself.”
What’s so intriguing about The Incredibles 2 is that, by releasing more than a decade after its forebear, it’s set to touch down on a totally different cinematic landscape. X-Men and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man dominated the relatively sparse superhero genre back in 2004, but in those intervening years Hollywood has spun out countless movies, with plenty more still in the works. Will the crowded nature of the genre have any bearing on Bird’s follow-up?
Pixar’s beloved superhero family – Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, Violet, Dash, Jack Jack, Frozone and, yes, even Edna Mode – are still three long years away from making a triumphant return, with The Incredibles 2 currently slated for June 21, 2019.
