It looks like Pixar is ready to return to superhero territory. After years of speculation, Incredibles 3 finally has movement, and fans may not have to wait too long for real progress. Franchise star Holly Hunter, who has voiced Helen Parr since the 2004 original, confirmed that she’ll start recording dialogue soon. Speaking with Screen Rant during promotion for her new role in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Hunter revealed, “I think I start in March.”
At Disney’s D23 event in 2024, Pixar officially announced that Incredibles 3 was in development. The huge surprise came with the news that Brad Bird, the writer and director behind both The Incredibles and Incredibles 2, isn’t returning to direct. Instead, Peter Sohn, who previously made The Good Dinosaur and Elemental, will be taking over the director’s chair. Bird will still write the screenplay, keeping the creative DNA of the series intact.
Hunter admitted that she hasn’t seen the script yet. “I don’t know. I never do know,” she said with a laugh. “I never know what the stories are of Incredibles. I go in and I record with Brad, or in this case I don’t know if it’s going to be Brad, but I think he’s been writing the script. So it’s very exciting.” While she stayed tight-lipped on the plot, her comments confirm what fans have been waiting to hear for years: the Parr family will be back.
But why another sequel? That question hangs over Pixar’s recent strategy. The studio that once defined originality has spent the post-pandemic era chasing safe bets. When Disney decided to send several of Pixar’s fresh stories straight to Disney+, the box office took a hit. Films like Elemental and Elio failed to spark big theatrical numbers. Meanwhile, sequels such as Inside Out 2, Incredibles 2, Finding Dory, Toy Story 3, and Toy Story 4 sit atop Pixar’s all-time charts. That tells its own story about what audiences want, and is right in line with what Disney prioritizes.
Pixar isn’t slowing down either. Toy Story 5 is already dated for June 2026, and Coco 2 is now in active development. Studio head Pete Docter has stated that both Incredibles 3 and Coco 2 will arrive “2028 and beyond.” That means the third Incredibles movie could hit theaters right around the 10-year anniversary of Incredibles 2 and nearly a quarter-century after the 2004 original.
There’s plenty of history behind this franchise. The first Incredibles movie earned $631 million globally and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Film, sitting at a near-perfect 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. Fourteen years later, Incredibles 2 shattered expectations, making $1.2 billion and taking the fourth-highest spot at the 2018 box office, with a strong 93% critical score. With success like that, can anyone really be surprised Pixar keeps returning to the Parr family?
Incredibles 3 doesn’t have a release date yet, though Pixar’s next original movie, Gatto, is scheduled for March 5, 2027. Could this be the moment Pixar reclaims the magic that once made its name? Or is the studio leaning too far into nostalgia to save its box office future? This may be important to fans, but it’s Disney shareholders that have plenty riding on the answer.
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