Brad Bird has revealed that Pixar will release a long run of original films after Toy Story 4 hits screens next year.
The animation studio’s original efforts, which has included the likes of “Toy Story,” “Monsters, Inc.,” “Finding Nemo,” “The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille,” “WALL-E,” “Up,” “Inside Out” and “Coco,” have been roundly lauded and praised as some of the best films of the last 25 years.
In recent years, though, Pixar have followed the Hollywood trend of sequels, sequels and more sequels. In fact, after “Toy Story 4” is released, four out of their last five films will have been sequels.
Brad Bird was the most recent writer and director to add to Pixar’s growing number of follow-ups, as he brought the Parr family back in “Incredibles 2,” 14 years after the original was released.
But Bird, who also works as a consultant for the studio, recently confirmed to me that a string of original Pixar movies will be released over the next few years, while also insisting that the powers-that-be over in Emeryville don’t have a “grand plan” when it comes to their future.
“People tend to think that there is a grand plan to this. In the way that they think that conspiracy theories involving the government are grand plans. In fact, government, in general, is kind of bumbling. Pixar doesn’t have any overarching strategy.”
“I think if we had control over this it would be this perfectly balanced amount between films where people want to do more with certain characters that they have created and original stuff. But after ‘Toy Story 4’ we are going to have a long run of original films.”
“And that also was not designed. That was also not designed. That’s just the way it happened and more happenstance than people imagine. It is not some sort of corporate agenda.”
But when you consider that “Incredibles 2” has just broken the opening weekend haul at the domestic box office for an animated film, taking in $183.2 million, you can bet that Pixar will return to the sequel well in the very near future.
