Incredibles 2 is finally opening in theaters this weekend and it is poised for an incredible performance at the box office, proving that audiences haven't forgotten about the ParrfFamily since the first film. It took a long time, 14 years all told, to get a sequel to 2004's The Incredibles, and it would have been easy to think that it was never going to happen. However, although it took a decade plus for the movie to hit theaters, that doesn't mean that it was in production that whole time or in some sort of development hell. In fact, production on Incredibles 2 was actually something of a rush job, as Bob Odenkirk, who plays Winston Deavor in the film, explained:
I know that the movie was done in a shorter amount of time because they had more confidence in the story. Brad had confidence in the story that he had. Pixar usually takes more time than this. It felt like a fairly long time to me, but they were like, 'This is a rush job for us because we believe in it.'
Pixar movies generally take a long time to come together, as the studio will repeatedly go back to the drawing board and delay movies in order to get the story right. Yet in the case of Incredibles 2, which was announced in 2014, the film came together rather quickly for a Pixar film. As Bob Odenkirk told IndieWire, this was because Pixar and director Brad Bird had confidence in the story for the film, so a drawn-out production process to get every beat pitch perfect was unnecessary. So while the production on Incredibles 2 may have seemed like a long time to Bob Odenkirk (and us), it was actually a little bit quicker than it might otherwise have been on another Pixar film.
The confidence they had in the eagerly awaited sequel actually allowed Incredibles 2 to be rushed to completion and released much sooner than was originally intended. Incredibles 2 was originally set for a 2019 release date, but back in 2016, the sequel swapped dates with another long in development sequel, Toy Story 4, which the studio didn't have as much confidence in at that point and have since made some changes to behind the scenes. This swap moved the release date for Incredibles 2 up a whole year. Considering how often we see films delayed or cancelled outright because of production problems and trouble cracking the story, to see a film come out a whole year ahead of schedule is pretty remarkable.
It's no surprise that Pixar had confidence in the film and especially Brad Bird. The writer and director delivered The Incredibles and Ratatouille for the studio. If you can't trust him, who can you trust? And judging by the final product, you can see why Pixar and Brad Bird were confident, because Incredibles 2 doesn't feel at all like a rush job and delivers an incredible superhero tale with the family that we've been waiting 14 years to see again.
Incredibles 2 is in theaters now. Before you go see it, check out what you need to remember about the first movie and which ticket you should buy. Then when you come back, let us know what you thought. For everything else hitting theaters the rest of the year, check out our release schedule.
