You know that Pixar sequel we’ve all been hoping for? The one with superheroes by Brad Bird? Well, the studio is giving us Cars 3 instead. Apparently, at least. Route 66 News interviewed Michael Wallis, author of the book “Route 66: The Mother Road” and voice of the Sheriff in Cars, and he confirmed that a second sequel to the merchandising behemoth is in production.
The offhanded comment is made around the 22-minute mark of the interview. In it, he mentions that the movie would focus on historic Route 99, another significant US highway. (The original movie dealt with the legendary Route 66). It’s important to note neither Disney nor Pixar have confirmed this and we’ll keep you updated on any news regarding this sequel.
Now, typically voice actors are held to very strict non-disclosure agreements and aren’t allowed to talk about films until the studio gives the official go ahead. It seems odd that he would be the one to announce this. Could this have been an innocent mental slip? Or perhaps this film is actually a Cars short he’s working on and he erroneously called it a feature. It’s happened before; The Toy Story actors referred to the Toy Story Toons as Toy Story 4.
However, this statement does seem to align with a statement Disney CEO Bob Iger made earlier this year about future Pixar sequels:
“On the animation front, Pixar continues to create great value for our company too. We are very excited about Monsters University which opens next month. Pixar’s slate of films for the next five years includes fantastic original stories as well as some great sequels to their previous hits. And as we recently announced, we are in production on one of those sequels, Finding Dory, featuring Ellen DeGeneres once again as the voice of Dory, one of the most beloved characters from Finding Nemo which was one of the most popular and profitable movies to date.”
Iger specifically mentions sequels, plural. Finding Dory is announced, but currently, there aren’t any other publically known Pixar sequels in development. So, whether you like it or not, this could be even further suspicious evidence that Cars 3 is happening.
Obviously, there is the long-awaited and desired The Incredibles sequel that fans have been clamoring for years. But with Brad Bird being tied up with a few live action gigs, it would be a long ways out. Other potential properties include A Bug’s Life, Ratatouille, Up, Wall-E, and Brave, but the majority of those seem odd choices for sequels. Cars is an incredible popular franchise for Disney/Pixar, bringing in billions of dollars of revenue each year. It’s a no brainer that they want to keep it alive and thriving.
In case you want to see what the general public has to say about this, you can head over to our April Fool’s article, in which we claimed Cars 3 was happening. People who don’t notice the article is a joke keep commenting and boy, they’re not happy!
