Final Elio Trailer Reveals Pixar’s Next Big Summer Movie

Pixar released the fourth and final trailer for Elio on Tuesday, giving us a better idea of the plot than any of the previews before. With a June 20th release date and a fun, campy premise, this could easily be the big movie of the summer — though the competition is fierce. Elio takes its titular character, 11-year-old Elio Solis (Yonas Kibreab) on an interstellar journey to become the ambassador for Earth among alien races. The premise plays to Pixar’s strengths, as it allows for countless unique character designs and outlandish, colorful settings. However, as usual it is all built onto an emotional coming-of-age story.

Fans who have seen the two previous teasers and one previous trailer for Elio already knew that the movie would follow Elio’s abduction and his time among alien beings, but now we have a clearer idea of the story structure at play here. We see Elio in the care of his concerned Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña), who drops him off at a summer camp in the hope he can make some friends and come out of his shell. Instead, Elio calls out for aliens to abduct him and take him away.

Elio is mistakenly regarded as the ambassador for all earthlings, and he cons his way into a place among the extraterrestrials he meets. According to Pixar, the organization that picked him up is called the Communiverse. However, he and his new friends a threatened by a hostile alien named Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett). Unable to run this time, Elio needs to face the threat head-on to find the belonging he craves.

[RELATED: Elio Director Confirms the Movie’s Major ET Inspirations (And One Is Hidden)]

Elio was first announced at D23 in September of 2022, and its marketing campaign has rolled out slowly over the years since then. The movie was written by Julia Cho, Mark Hammer, and Mike Jones, and directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, and Adrian Molina. Its production was delayed slightly by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA actors strike, as well as internal shakeups at Pixar. Still, by the studio’s slow, methodical standards, its production time is not out of the ordinary.

This is the fourth year in a row Pixar has kicked off the summer with a major release in June. Next year, the studio will shake up that streak by releaseing Hoppers in March before Toy Story 5 hits theaters in June. Other than that, the only movie on its schedule is Coco 2, which is expected in 2029. Incredibles 3 is also in development, but it’s unclear when we may see it come to fruition.

Elio hits theaters on Friday, June 20th in the U.S.