Just like its predecessor and some of the other best Pixar movies, Inside Out has absolutely crushed it at the box office, and it doesn’t look like it’ll be letting up anytime soon. We have a potential third film to look forward to at some point down the road, but we also have a new spinoff TV series that will be coming to Disney+ much, much sooner.
That’s right, we’re going to go back into the world, err, mind of Inside Out with a new spinoff TV series that sounds like it’ll focus less on capturing teenage anxiety (though that will surely come up) and more on our dreams and how they affect our day-to-day lives. But before we get carried away, let’s go and dive into all the details about the upcoming Disney+ series and what it means for the franchise as a whole.
What Is The Inside Out TV Show Premiere Date?
Though we don’t have an exact premiere date for the upcoming Inside Out series, Pixar Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter has provided a window for the next phase in the franchise. When speaking with Entertainment Weekly ahead of the June 2024 release of Inside Out 2, Docter, who directed the first film, revealed that the show would be coming out “next spring,” meaning sometime between March and June 2025.
So, everyone with a Disney+ subscription will be able to see what Docter and everyone else involved with the still-untitled project have cooking up in relatively no time at all. And don’t worry, because as soon as we hear more about the premiere date, number of episodes, and other details about the show’s release, we’ll share them with you all.
The Inside Out Series Will Explore Dream Production And How They Impact Our Waking Lives
Details surrounding the story for the new Inside Out TV series are admittedly a bit sparse at the time of this writing, but Pete Docter has provided some key information about what viewers can expect once it does premiere at some point in 2025. During the same Entertainment Weekly interview mentioned above, the Soul, Monster’s, Inc., and Up director shed some light on the project and the key scene from the first film that inspired it, saying:
In the first film, remember we go to Dream Production (sic) to see how Riley's dreams are made? It semi-explains why they're so weird. We've continued the exploration of the power of dreams and how they affect us in our waking life, as well. So it's pretty cool.
One of the key locations from 2015’s Inside Out, as well as one teased in a spectacular early look at the film back in 2014, Dream Productions was depicted as a movie studio deep inside Riley’s mind and where the young girl’s dreams were made. Though smaller than Sadness expected, the massive studio produced all of Riley’s dreams (both happy ones and nightmares) and was instrumental to not only her growth, but also the way she dealt with desires, fears, and emotions as a whole. How that location and those concepts are explored are not yet known, but we’re excited to see where this goes.
Will We See Any Familiar Faces From The Inside Out Movies?
The first two Inside Out movies have introduced us to some of the most beloved animated characters of all time with the likes of Joy, Sadness, Bing Bong, Anxiety, and Riley herself, but we don’t yet know how many, if any, of those familiar faces will be showing up when the new show hits Disney+. If the series ends up being set inside Riley’s mind again (that is, unless Dream Productions has a studio in everyone’s head), then we’ll surely see the character return, and hopefully some other fan favorites.
Disney+’s Zootopia+ series brought back several members of the Zootopia cast when the anthology series premiered in November 2022, and maybe, just maybe that’ll again be the case when the Inside Out series hits the small screen.
The Project Has Been In The Works Since At Least June 2023
Though news about the new Inside Out series started making the rounds in June 2024 with the aforementioned Entertainment Weekly article, Matthew Belloni revealed in his Puck newsletter back in June 2023 that Disney and Pixar were working on a series expanding the franchise beyond Inside Out 2. In his “The Troubling Pixar Paradox” profile story, Belloni wrote that the show, which wasn’t yet announced, was created by Soul screenwriter Mike Jones and was described as being “another big-budget series.”
Jones’ name didn’t come up in the June 2024 EW interview with Pete Docter or a Deadline article published shortly after. That said, we should know more about the behind-the-scenes players and other creative forces in the coming weeks and months.
The Inside Out Series Has Already Finished Production
What’s crazy about the Inside Out series is the fact that it has not only started production, but has already wrapped. During his conversation with Entertainment Weekly, Pete Docter responded with “We have finished” when asked about the upcoming series and if it was something he could talk about. How much post-production will be required before the series is release-ready is not known, but with a planned Spring 2025 premiere, it must be pretty far along.
This Isn’t The First Time Pixar Has Expanded The Inside Out Franchise Beyond The Movies
Though the still-untitled show is the first series to come from the Inside Out universe, it’s not the first time Pixar has expanded the franchise beyond the movies. Back in November 2015, a 10-minute short film titled Riley’s First Date was released alongside the film’s home release and picked up at some point after the first movie ended. The short, which we described as funny and charming nearly a decade ago, follows Riley as she hangs out with the skater boy she met at the end of the movie, much to the chagrin of her parents.
You can watch Riley’s First Date, as well as other great animated short films, on Disney+, which will eventually be the home of Inside Out 2 at some point soon.
Stream Riley’s First Date? on Disney+.
Expect to hear more about the Inside Out TV series as we get closer to its Spring 2025 premiere. In the meantime, check out our breakdown of the 2024 TV schedule or get caught up on all the upcoming Pixar movies coming to theaters.
