Brad Bird Won't Return to Direct 'Incredibles 3'

Pixar is hard at work bringing its own superhero team back to the big screen, but its previous leader is taking a back seat. Brad Bird, who wrote and directed the first two Incredibles films, won’t be helming Incredibles 3. He’s writing the script but is handing the director’s chair over to Peter Sohn, who made The Good Dinosaur and Elemental and has worked on Pixar films going back to 2003’s Finding Nemo.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of the director change which, frankly, is a bit of a shock. Sohn is great, as his work on Elemental proved, but with other major Pixar directors still helming Pixar films, like Andrew Stanton doing Toy Story 5 and Lee Unkrich returning for Coco 2, we assumed Bird would return too. However, the trade reports Bird’s schedule is the main culprit here, as he’s getting ready to make a new animated film at Skydance called Ray Gunn.

But, it’s Pixar, so even if Bird isn’t directing and Sohn is, it’s still a group effort. The animation house helped popularize a system where a group of talented filmmakers give notes on a film throughout the process. So while Sohn will make the final decisions, he’ll have a ton of incredible talent—no pun intended—around him.

The Incredibles, of course, came to prominence in 2004 with the smash hit story of a family of superheroes. The movie went on to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature and, years later, spawned the good but less celebrated sequel Incredibles 2. And even though Incredibles 2 doesn’t get talked about as much as the original, it almost doubled the gross of the original, proving this is a story family audiences still want to see.

No word on when Incredibles 3 might hit theaters but 2027 or 2028 would be the most likely. Are you ready to see the Parrs back in action? Is Sohn the right guy for the job? Let us know below.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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