Inside Out 2 has taken a long time to come to fruition since Inside Out premiered in 2015. But last year, the sequel was officially unveiled at D23 in September. Amy Poehler got on stage with director Pete Docter and proudly announced the production of Inside Out 2. Strange, it’s taken so long since Inside Out did so well in 2015. It even won the Oscar in its year for Best Animated Picture. But now the wait is over, or it will be in 2024, as Inside Out 2 finally enters production.
Amy Poehler was certainly very joyful when she revealed that Disney and Pixar would be making a sequel. The crowd roared as she stood on stage and told the world that everyone’s favorite emotions would be back for another adventure inside Riley’s head. Docter also announced that there would be some changes in the crew this time around, as he passes the torch to a different director. It’s still quite early in production, but as Disney and Pixar get ready to dive deeper into the world of emotions and mental health, we can’t wait to tell you everything we know about Inside Out 2.
How did Inside Out leave off?
The original film focused on 11-year-old Riley and her emotions after her family’s move to a new city. At the end of the movie, Joy, and Sadness work together to help Riley confess to her parents that she misses her old life and cope with the change. They create a new “core memory” and begin restoring the girl’s personality. The emotions also hint at another big change when they spot a new button on their control panel labeled “Puberty.”
Inside Out 2: The Plot
Inside Out famously set itself up for a sequel all those years ago, and now it seems that Inside Out 2 has plans to follow through on those promises. At the end of Inside Out when Riley’s troubles are finally resolved, Joy sees a big button that says “Puberty” on it, and for a moment, she’s tempted to press it. Well in the sequel, it looks like this group of emotions is going to be back, but this time, inside the mind of a teenager.
“We’re going to have what it feels like to be a teenager, the new emotions that live inside a young person’s brain,” she said. “In many ways, it was really exciting. We knew exactly where we were. We go to the teen brain and we see the madness that lives inside there.”
She went on to explain that the movie will be going deeper. As one’s emotions might become more significant as we grow older, so too, will those inside Riley. She even said that the filmmakers would be exploring mental health.
“A lot has happened since the first film in terms of the emotional intelligence and how we think about mental health and how our emotions can affect us physically, and what’s really going on inside our head.”
It seems there is a lot of work to do for Inside Out 2. Addressing the mental health of a teenager is dangerous territory compared to dealing with the troubles of a child. Although we all have trauma to deal with, there are some parts of the mind that can get pretty heavy, and it sounds like this sequel might approach the realm of dealing with someone’s problems psychologically. If Inside Out 2 is going to look at how our mental health can affect us physically, then the filmmakers must be ready to deal with some big problems.
Inside Out 2: The Cast & Crew
Although it’s still early in production we are aware of some changes to the cast and crew for the sequel. Pete Docter announced that he would not be directing this movie, but rather would be giving the position to Kelsey Mann. Mann is mostly known for his work as a storyboard artist but has directed some shorts for Pixar. He’s most recently worked as a creative consultant for the television series Monsters at Work. By all accounts, this will be his first big directorial project.
But returning from the Inside Out cast will be some recognizable faces. Docter and Poehler announced at D23 that Meg LeFauve, writer of the original movie, has returned to work on the sequel. And many of the cast members would be back as well. Amy Poehler would be back as Joy. Phyllis Smith would return as Sadness. Lewis Black would be reprising his role as Anger. And Diane Lane would once again voice Riley’s Mom. The sequel would also be produced by its original producer, Mark Nielsen.
Though a lot of the core cast members would be returning, it seems many have been cut out. It might just be that it’s early in production, but Mindy Kaling, who played Disgust in the first movie, recently said in an interview with The Movie Dweeb, that she had “nothing to do” with Inside Out 2. It could be that Pixar is changing up a lot of its original ensemble cast in order to tell a different story. But occasionally, as is the case with these kinds of movies, projects will be announced and deals might be worked out with actors after the fact. So it’s still possible we might see some more familiar names added to the roster as production continues.
Inside Out 2: Release Date
Inside Out 2 will be released in theaters on June 14, 2024.
