Pixar will focus on original movies after “Toy Story 4”

May 15, 2019

By Sam Bigelow

The continuing adventures of Lightning McQueen, Nemo and the Incredibles are about to take a back seat to even more original films, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In an interview with the outlet, Pixar producer Mark Nielsen said that Pixar’s slate following the release of “Toy Story 4” will feature original films rather than projects revolving around existing characters.

Nielsen said Pete Docter — the new chief creative officer at Pixar and the director behind “Up,” “Monsters, Inc.” and “Inside Out” — is credited with inspiring a new era of creativity.

“He’s really looking out for the new voices and really loading up the development pool,” Nielsen said. “It’s all original films after this one right now.”

For the last 10 years, Pixar’s slate has been mostly filled with sequels capitalizing on some of the studio’s notable properties. Starting with “Toy Story 3” in 2010, six of Pixar’s last 10 films are sequels.

Original films in this time period include “Brave,” “Inside Out” and “Coco.” Comic Book also notes that in Pixar’s first 10 films, “Toy Story 2” was the only sequel.

Some other interesting facts from the Hollywood Reporter Interview:

“Toy Story 4” has been in development since 2014 and has gone through a revision following John Lasseter’s — the former co-founder and chief creative at Pixar — firing due to harassment allegations.
The movie will credit eight people with coming up with the story, including Lasseter, Rashida Jones (“Parks and Recreation”), Will McCormack, Josh Cooley (“Toy Story 4’s” director), Valerie LaPointe, Stephany Folsom (“Thor: Ragnarok”), Martin Hynes (“The Go-Getter”) and Andrew Stanton (“Finding Nemo”).
Stanton and Folsom are credited with writing the screenplay for “Toy Story 4,” which examines how Woody’s relationship with Bo Peep has affected him.
Pixar’s upcoming movies include “Onward,” which is written and directed by Dan Scanlan (“Monsters University”) and a movie from Domee Shi, who directed the Pixar short film “Bao.”

“Toy Story 4” arrives in theaters on June 21 and will mark the end of Buzz and Woody’s story for the foreseeable future, if Nielsen is to be believed.