Incredibles 2 (and 3!)

[Ben]

Did they change the story? It only says he’s in prep for Ray Gunn, which admittedly is a bit odd since they announced that a year or more ago and I’d hwve thought it would be deep or even finished in animation by this point. Hmmm…

[Dacey]

Okay. That's very weird, because I could swear they did change it. I'm (almost) certain the paragraph originally read "Bird’s schedule seems to be the reason as to why he is not directing the third film in the franchise, given he’s in pre-production on Skydance’s Ray Gunn, as well as 1906 for Disney." (Or words to that extent) But it specifically said he was doing it for Disney.

EDIT: Variety also mentions 1906. I'm going to assume THR made a major boo-boo here by revealing more than they were supposed to.

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/incr ... 236424919/

This installment is the first without Brad Bird at the helm. Bird wrote and directed the original 2004 adventure “The Incredibles” and its 2018 sequel “Incredibles 2.” It’s unclear why Bird is no longer directing the threequel, but the Pixar veteran will remain involved as a screenwriter and producer. Scheduling conflicts could be the culprit. Bird is developing the futuristic “Ray Gunn” for Skydance and historical drama “1906” for Disney, though the timeline on those films are hazy.

[Ben]

Hazy is right! 1906 has been in "development at Disney" since it was first mooted. Even in them changing the story, there’s nothing to suggest this has any kind of greenlight: he may have used it as leverage to agree to an I3, but then The Diz may have been equally peeved that he then "defected" to Skydance for Gunn (which they’re probably equally peeved at themselves for ultimately passing on!), so keep him dangling in development hell.

Ultimately, animation isn’t really an auteur medium as any real authorship is in the writing, not the direction, so it doesn’t *really* matter who's actually calling the shots on I3 since Bird wrote it (and will be producing). The fact that he’s not directing *may* hold a clue, but I’m still surprised Gunn is not out of "development", or that he didn’t get a chance to make 1906 after the success of his Mission: Impossible entry. Let’s just hope all three…if they happen..are good Brad Bird films!

[Kaszubas]

Ultimately, animation isn’t really an auteur medium as any real authorship is in the writing, not the direction, so it doesn’t *really* matter who's actually calling the shots on I3 since Bird wrote it (and will be producing). The fact that he’s not directing *may* hold a clue, but I’m still surprised Gunn is not out of "development", or that he didn’t get a chance to make 1906 after the success of his Mission: Impossible entry. Let’s just hope all three…if they happen..are good Brad Bird films!

I have my doubts, Ben.
Brad Bird has his style. And a style is a major part of film’s identity, ESPECIALLY animated film. Imagine Spider-verse animated like Soul. It would be totally different movie even if the script stays the same. Sohn movies never stood out as particularly visually interesting. Those were rather bland. In contrast The Incredibles, Ratatouille or Iron Giant were all very cinematic, with great shot composition, camera work incredible (pun intended) attention for staging, silhouettes, well designed color palette, inventive lighting setups, no fear for stark tonal contrast, bold character designs, engaging action scenes with really good spatial awareness. Sohn is not particularly famous for those aspects of movie making. Let’s just say that this news did NOT hyped me up for this upcoming sequel (to put it mildly)… I may just hope he’ll prove me wrong.