Brad Bird Says “Incredibles 2” is Not a Cash-Grab

The director of the upcoming Disney/Pixar film Incredibles 2 says that he isn’t making this sequel just for the money.

Brad Bird, who also directed the original film, made this comment while sitting down with Screen Rant.

“There’s a saying in the business that I can’t stand, where they go, ‘You don’t make another one, you’re leaving money on the table!’ Money on the table isn’t what makes me get up in the morning,” said Bird. “Making something people are gonna enjoy 100 years from now is what gets me up. So, if it were a cash grab, we would not have taken 14 years.”

He added that the fourteen years between movies (the original having come out in 2004) testifies to this fact. Indeed, many fans have wondered why, of all Pixar movies, this one in particular hasn’t had a sequel until now, given how common that is for successful superhero movies and how its world seem ripe for further exploration.

In the world of The Incredibles, superheroes were active years ago but then forced to retire due to property damage and other problems. Two of these retired heroes, Bob Parr/Mister Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) and his wife Helen/Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), started a family with teenage daughter Violet (Sarah Vowell), preteen son Dash (Spencer Fox in the original film, Huck Milner in the sequel) and baby Jack-Jack.

The first movie was a fairly personal story, with Bob getting involved in secret hero work to deal with a midlife crisis and the rest of the family getting drawn in after his capture by the villainous Syndrome (Jason Lee). This new story, however, will be bigger in scope, with Helen leading the way in an attempt to get superheroes legalized again.

This is not the first sequel for Pixar but most of their previous efforts have been underwhelming. The main exception is the Toy Story franchise, which is getting a fourth movie next year (a fact which is somewhat controversial, given how the third was seen as a perfect ending). Cars 3 was also deemed alright, but still not exceptional by the studio’s high standards.

Incredibles 2 comes out June 15, so until then fans will have to hope that it will live up to the original.