After Pixar's Incredibles 3 Confirms A Major Change, I'm Actually More Excited For The Movie

I was in the audience at D23 last summer when Pixar CCO Pete Docter confirmed that Brad Bird was already at work developing Incredibles 3. There was, unsurprisingly, a lot of applause following that announcement. The Incredibles is one of Pixar’s most beloved films. Incredibles 2 was the top-grossing Pixar movie ever made until Inside Out 2 dethroned it last summer.

I like both Incredibles films, but I have to admit I wasn’t overwhelmed with excitement that Incredibles 3 was on the way. There was no reason to believe it wouldn’t be a solid film, but I just found it less interesting than doing something new or even making a sequel to a film that hadn’t already received one. But now I’m a bit more curious about Incredibles 3 because it will be different from the previous films in a big way.

Brad Bird Will Not Direct The Next Incredibles Movie

Today, THR broke the news that while Brad Bird will write and produce Incredibles 3, he will not direct the movie, as he had done with each of the previous Incredibles franchise entries. Instead, directing duties will be handled by Peter Sohn, who most recently directed Pixar’s Elemental.

While it had been widely assumed that Bird would direct the movie, it had never been specifically stated by Pixar. Perhaps that had even been the plan at one point. Bird does have other projects he’s directing, including Ray Gunn for Netflix. It’s possible Bird just didn’t have the time in his schedule. Bird and Docter reportedly jointly selected Sohn as the man who should direct the new film.

Peter Sohn Is The Perfect Choice To Helm Incredibles 3

But now you have my attention. My love for Elemental is well known to frequent CinemaBlend readers. I think it’s the best movie Pixar has made in a long time. Pixar has always been good at turning things without consciousness into living things that we care about and cry over. But in Elemental, we saw those characters fall in love, and the movie let a single relationship carry the weight of the entire story.

If Peter Sohn can do that with fire and water, then I have high hopes that he can do even more with characters that are actually human. It might be just enough of a different vibe to an Incredibles movie that it feels unique and not simply like it’s another of the same movie for the third time.

Fans of Brad Bird need not worry. He’s still writing the film, so one assumes the final script, the plot, the dialogue, etc, will be mostly his work. It will still be Bird’s story, and Sohn has been one of his long-time collaborator. Sohn began his professional career as an animator on The Iron Giant and has contributed to every film Bird has made for Pixar, including both previous Incredibles movies. If there's another person capable of bringing Brad Bird's work to life properly, it's probably Peter Sohn.

The fact that a director has been slotted indicates that Incredibles 3 is probably getting ready to shift into more of a production status, though the movie is probably at least a couple of years away at least. Still, I’m looking forward to when that day comes more now than I was before.