Brad Bird Confirms ‘Incredibles 2’ is His Next Film, Comments on ‘Star Wars’ Talk

Brad Bird made his name as an animated film director, beginning with a couple of episodes of “The Simpsons” before heading to feature films with The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Then he moved to live action, finding success with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and this month will see the release of Tomorrowland, but it seems to be time for him to move back to animation, if only for a moment.

At the Collider the animated, Pixar sequel will be his next film, though that doesn’t necessarily mean we have a timeline to production and its subsequent release.

Pixar has staked out a Nov. 22, 2017 release date for an untitled project, but even that seems optimistic given Bird is dealing with what he calls “a bunch of pages”, not a completed script. Here’s what he had to say:

Oh yeah I have pages, a bunch of pages. I had a lot of ideas for the original Incredibles that I didn’t get a chance to use, that I like. I have ideas that I wanted to pursue a little bit and there wasn’t enough time in Incredibles. There are new ideas I have, and I think there are enough of those together to make an interesting movie. I’m just focusing on getting Tomorrowland out into the world and playing with the Incredibles sandbox again.

Bird seems committed to The Incredibles, which I’m sure Pixar and fans of the original are loving, but it also means anyone interested in seeing Bird play with Disney’s new Star Wars toys are going to have to wait. Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, and he confirms with Collider that he has spoken with Lucasfilm producer and President, Kathleen Kennedy and it sounds like those talks haven’t entirely stopped.

“Well Kathy and I have discussed the possibility of — I mean she’s basically saying this is a very large sandbox and other people can play in it,” Bird said. “I was particularly attracted to the idea of picking up and — J.J. [Abrams] got very excited about the notion of shaping the next trilogy, and that idea was interesting to me, too. But I kind of — I’m writing a sequel to The Incredibles and I can’t think too much farther beyond that. I have other things I want to do as well.”

So more Incredibles and possibly more original stories of his own. Perhaps he’s learning from Joss Whedon whose departure from the Marvel-verse seemed like he was these new rumors that he’s the least bit interested in taking on a Star Wars movie.

As for the possibility of Bird ever directing a Star Wars movie… With this franchise in the hands of Disney you know it will never end so I’d say he has up until the day he dies to take one on.