14 years after the first film, writer/director Brad Bird is bringing Incredibles 2 to theaters in just one week’s time, but don’t expect him to give the sequel treatment to all of his beloved properties.
Sadly, if you’re hoping for a sequel to Iron Giant or Ratatouille, this is going to come as a bit of a heartbreaker. Bird has no interest in returning to either franchise.
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While speaking to io9 about Incredibles 2, Bird said that he was done with both of those stories, and had no desire to revisit them.
“You know, I feel like that story is told,” Bird said of Ratatouille. “I’m told I need to do an Iron Giant 2 and I’m told I need to remake everything that I’ve made and no one apparently wants anything new anymore. I’m a little at odds with society on that. I would like to do some new things.”
Of course the exception to this is Incredibles 2, which Bird has spent several years working on, and it’s expected to dominate the box office next weekend. With this franchise however, he had a story that he still wanted to tell, and that’s just not the case with the others.
“This did [turn out well],” he said of the new Pixar film. “But you’re welcome to take a crack at a Ratatouille sequel. I feel like I’ve done my Ratatouille. I’ve done my Mission: Impossible, and I’ve done my Iron Giant. And that’s that. I’m not mad about it, but it seems like it’s the only thing that people want now is for you to repeat what you just did.”
While Bird does like the notion that people love his previous work so much that they enjoy more of it, he thinks that that sequels can sometimes run a good thing into the ground.
“Well, it’s nice,” Bird continued. “It’s complimentary. But it kind of reminds me of when my boys were little and I would give them a push on the swing and they’d go ‘Again!’ It’s a sweet thing but it’s also, from an artist standpoint, it’s a little frustrating. Like, what if I want to do a Western? Would there be any support for that idea? What if I wanted to do a musical? How about that? You know, it’s like – there are other things to do.”
All that to say, it’s nice to know that filmmakers like Bird care more about the story they’re telling than whether or not they can milk a franchise for more sequels, which makes the idea of his return to Incredibles 2 that much more enticing.
Incredibles 2 is set to hit theaters on June 15.
