Patton Oswalt Teases 'Ratatouille' Sequel

Patton Oswalt would consider lending his voice to a Ratatouille sequel under one condition: writer-director Brad Bird would have to cook up a "truly great" story.

"If [a sequel] happens, I'll be the last to know," Oswalt told EW's Couch Surfing. "I don't want there to be a sequel just to do a sequel. I want it to be if Brad Bird comes up with a truly great story. Then we'll do it."

The comedian and actor voiced Remy, a rat with a passion and a flair for cooking, in the 2007 animated hit that grossed $620 million worldwide.

Bird's first Pixar production, 2004's The Incredibles, is just now getting its 14-years-later sequel. That gap between films means "Rata2ouille," as Oswalt jokingly called it, would receive the same kind of lengthy preparation.

"He was in no rush to do Incredibles 2," Oswalt said. "He waited until he thought of a really cool story. He was like, 'If I come up with a story, we'll do one.'"

Oswalt credits his profanity-laced stand-up bit about Black Angus Steakhouses and their aggressively indulgent menus for landing him the role of the cuisine-loving rodent, who aspires to be a famous chef.

"They were having trouble casting the lead, and they were playing that bit on some late night comedy channel on satellite radio and they brought me in," Oswalt said.

"First, what I found out later, was he did a little pencil animation of Remy doing that bit, which he showed to the Disney people," he explained.

"And they're like, 'Is he gonna be cursing that much?' 'No, no, that's just the bit, he won't be doing that. That won't be his dialogue.'"

"We were kind of both budding foodies and all that stuff," he added. "So that really, really worked out."

Pixar mined the Cars and Toy Story franchises into trilogies — with a Toy Story 4 on the way — bringing sequels to screen over a decade later for both Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo.

Like A Bug's Life, Wall-E, and Up, Ratatouille is one of the few remaining standalones — but when or if Ratatouille 2 arrives, it won't come half-baked.

Oswalt next lends his voice to Illumination's The Secret Life of Pets 2, replacing comedian Louis C.K. as the voice of Max.