Pete Docter Discusses Potential Pixar Sequels Including ‘Monsters, Inc.’, ‘Finding Nemo’, and ‘The Incredibles’
Pixar found itself in the midst of a firestorm earlier this month when a Bloomberg report indicated that the studio would lean heavily into its established franchise and sequels, perhaps at the cost of original stories.
Since then, however, Pixar CCO Pete Docter has explained that the studio is really striving for a balance. In the end, he says, it is all about the stories.
As the studio looks forward to its next slate of films, Docter and his team believe that they are in a good place.
“I feel like we’re in a really golden place where, after a lot of turmoil, every project we have is exciting to me for multiple reasons — both from new looks and technology, but more importantly, original stories and storytellers,” Docter told EW. “I’ve been at Pixar for 33 years and I don’t think we’ve ever been in a period of more turmoil and uncertainty than right now, which is kind of exciting. I know that’s weird maybe to say.”
What Sequels Could Pixar Make?
While Pixar has a pair of original films on the way, the studio is also looking to mine its established franchises for new content. The goal says Docter is to come up with a one-to-one ratio.
Throughout the interview with EW, Docter was pressed on what franchises could produce more sequels. Here is what the Pixar head honcho had to say.
‘Monsters, Inc.’
While Pixar has previously produced both a prequel (Monsters University) and a streaming series sequel (Monsters at Work) to Monsters, Inc., according to Docter, there are no current plans for a sequel film.
“We’ve been searching for ideas for a Monsters, Inc. sequel for a long time, and we haven’t seen enough to start working on anything there yet,” he said.
‘The Incredibles’
Discussing a potential series or film based on The Incredibles, Docter admitted that there could be more stories to tell.
“Clearly, that’s a super entertaining world. [Director] Brad Bird and [Pixar’s former chief creative officer] John Lasseter really brought some great stuff that was original to that genre of family on the mundanity of having dinner, carpooling to school, or whatever, and superheroes. That feels like it definitely has more to play with.”
‘Finding Nemo’
Then, of course, there is Finding Nemo. Pixar returned to the ocean for 2016’s Finding Dory, and according to Docter, a return to the big blue world could be in store, if Pixar can find the right story to tell.
“For sure. It’s open, as are a lot of other movies. The ocean’s a big place. There are a lot of different areas and zones that feel like they’re open for exploration. However, the deeper question that we’re trying to be better at regulating ourselves is: what is this movie about? The deeper problem of Nemo was, as a parent, how do I raise my kid and allow them to live life and keep them safe at the same time? Which is this unanswerable conundrum that there is no answer to,” he explained.
“We’re kind of looking for those big life things, and unless we find something like that, we could put in all the spectacle and new, cool stuff as we want, but, as the guy who wrote Dumbo told me, ‘What are you giving the audience to take home?'”
For now then, the only sequel on Pixar’s slate, in addition to Inside Out 2, is Toy Story 5. By the sound of things, however, that could change soon.
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