Which Pixar Movies Are Most Likely To Get A Sequel Next?

A recent Bloomberg breakdown of the future of Pixar Animation Studios made it clear that something like Inside Out 2 is about to become the default norm for the studio. After Pixar was so consumed by sequels in the 2010s, one might’ve hoped the studio would pump the brakes on such projects in the near future. However, in order to bring some perceived financial stability to the label, the future of Pixar Animation Studios is teed up for an endless parade of sequels. That Bloomberg piece alone suggests that future Finding Nemo and Incredibles sequels are on the way after previous follow-ups to those movies broke box office records in the 2010s.

What’s weird about this emphasis, though, is that Pixar’s opportunities to make sequels to some of its classic titles is a bit limited. Pixar is gung-ho about franchises…but how many vintage Pixar movies can sustain further sequels? Whether it’s practical reasons (like the death of a key cast member), lack of audience enthusiasm, or any number of other reasons, a slew of potential Pixar sequels could be impossible titles. Ahead, let’s break down the likelihood of various Pixar titles getting sequels…and why some may be too impossible even for a franchise-hungry studio to embrace.

One note before diving in: Toy Story, Inside Out, Incredibles, and Finding Nemo are exempted from this conversation. Toy Story 5 is hitting theaters in 2026, Inside Out 2 is imminent, and it’s likely further Nemo and Incredibles installments are on the horizon. The franchise possibilities of those titles are clear as a bell.

Going through things in chronological order, it’s time to get in touch with the insect side of Pixar. The oldest Pixar Animation Studios to not get a sequel is the 1998 motion picture A Bug’s Life. The lowest-grossing feature for Pixar domestically until 2015’s The Good Dinosaur, there’s not a ton of financial incentives for Pixar and Disney to pursue a follow-up. The imminent closure of the Bug’s Life theme park attraction It’s Tough To Be a Bug also suggests Disney is moving away from this franchise. Making a 2020s Bug’s Life sequel would also be a challenge because…what would it look like? Literally? A Bug’s Life was an appealing project in 1998 because insects who don’t wear complex costumes was easy to do in the limitations of CG animation at the time. Updating those characters to look feasible in modern animation might render them unrecognizable. Don’t count on A Bug’s Life 2, even with the project getting referenced in a Toy Story “outtake” from 1999.

What about another Monsters Inc. extension? That’s not impossible to imagine, but the ongoing TV show Monsters at Work (which combined mythology from Inc. and Monsters University) might’ve exhausted the franchise for now. That program even brought back John Goodman and Billy Crystal to voice Sully and Mike, respectively. This means a third movie wouldn’t even have the novelty of bringing the celebrity voices back. More Monsters could happen, but more than a decade after Monsters University, it seems unlikely. Moving onto the Cars world, a fourth Cars could exist but, like more Monsters, the outlook looks hazy. Each Cars installment made less than its predecessor domestically. Kid’s love this franchise and Disney has lots of Cars material in the theme parks. Cars 4 could be seen as a costly way of keeping people invested in the larger mythos. Still, don’t count out more Lightning McQueen in the near future.

Now we come to the late 2000s trilogy of Ratatouille, WALL-E, and Up. This trio of motion pictures are among the most beloved Pixar has ever made. Ratatouille especially has become a phenomenon for many people, inspiring everything from a TikTok musical to a memorable recurring reference in Everything Everywhere All at Once. The popularity and acclaim attached to these projects could make them seem like prime material for sequels. However, Disney has never made any further Ratatouille or WALL-E feature films media past 2007 and 2008, the years of their respective releases. No additional shorts beyond ones made for their initial home video releases. No Disney+ programs. Nothing.

Pixar has been content to let these projects lie as one-offs. Pixar Animation Studios president Jim Morris even explicitly said in 2016 that the studio had no plans to make another WALL-E feature. Up, meanwhile, has been exploited for further filmed media in the form of the short films Dug Days and the 2023 theatrical short Carl’s Date. Those projects do suggest Up is more vulnerable to a sequel than its fellow late 2000s acclaimed Pixar films (its significantly bigger box office haul than Ratatouille and WALL-E doesn’t hurt either). The big problem here, though, is the passing of Up lead voice actor Ed Asner. He could be replaced as Carl Fredricksen, but it'd be such a weird move to make given how deeply associated he was with the character. Carl's Date director Bob Peterson also saw this short film (the last time Asner voiced Fredricksen) as "a terrific way to end" the Dug Days series and, by extension, the Up saga.

With Up unlikely to spawn a sequel (especially since it’s been 15 years already since the first movie), that leaves out another beloved Pixar feature that could inspire an upcoming franchise. That brings us to the 2010s when Pixar’s sequel fever first came into effect. This era provides another wrinkle to Pixar’s new franchise ambitions. The 2010s were so dominated by sequels that they produced few original movies that could spawn new follow-ups. They were so busy making more Toy Story 3s they didn’t craft as many new Toy Stories.

There are only three original movies from the 2010s that could spawn sequels for Pixar in the near future. Brave is a potential option on the table, especially since it was very lucrative and, making it extra enticing for Disney executives, has lots of merchandising connections for the larger Mouse House brand. The Good Dinosaur, meanwhile, was the first actual money-loser in the history of Pixar. That 2015 feature is among the least likely titles in the Pixar canon to score any kind of follow-up. It took so long and so much effort to get that first installment out. A sequel would just be tempting fate!

Now we come to the most likely motion picture, hands down, to eventually score a sequel that Pixar has yet to turn into a franchise. The 2017 movie Coco was a massive box office smash with an $800+ million worldwide haul. Since its release, Coco has endured as one of the most beloved Pixar motion pictures in history. It’s a tremendous artistic accomplishment of a movie. It’s also something Pixar executives are likely eyeballing as easy fodder for a sequel. Perhaps Miguel grows up and has his own kid who travels to the Land of the Dead? Coco 2 isn’t necessary, far from it. But it does seem to be among the most likely potential sequels Pixar will embrace in the near future.

As for the slew of original features Pixar launched in the early 2020s, it’s hard to tell if any of them could sustain a sequel. Onward, Soul, Luca, and Turning Red all had their general releases severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Three of them even went to Disney+ immediately instead of getting any kind of theatrical run. Because of that, it’s difficult to ascertain how much affection there is from the public for these titles.

The box office disparity between A Bug’s Life and Coco makes it apparent one of those features was more lucrative than the other. Streaming’s qualifiers for “success” make ascertaining the fanbases for Luca or Soul a much more difficult process to parse out. Regardless of whether or not Pixar artists would want to pursue those sequels, Onward 2 or Turning Red: Reloaded are likely years away. Pixar sequels tend to play on nostalgia. Marketing for titles like Incredibles 2 and Inside Out 2 hinges on “reuniting” with familiar characters who function like “old friends.” It’ll take nearly a decade for motion pictures like Luca to cultivate that kind of nostalgia.

The options for further Pixar sequels are incredibly limited, mostly because of the studio's long-simmering intense dedication to exploiting its titles for long-running franchises. Nonetheless, such follow-ups are clearly on their way. Who knows, even with all logic suggesting otherwise, perhaps A Bug's Life 2 is only a few years away...