Brad Bird Shoots Down Marvel & Incredibles Crossover

Screen Rant

Brad Bird Throws Cold Water on Marvel & Incredibles Crossover

By Sandy Schaefer

Published Jun 11, 2018

Incredibles 1 & 2 filmmaker Brad Bird isn't interested in having Pixar's superheroes cross-over with Marvel Studios' characters.

Incredibles 1 and 2 director Brad Bird is not interested in having Pixar's superheroes cross-over with Marvel Studios' characters. To be fair, it's something that could actually happen, now that both Marvel and Pixar are part of the larger Disney family. The Mouse House is already taking advantage of the sheer number of IPs under its umbrella by having Marvel characters, stormtroopers, and Disney princesses alike appear in this fall's Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2. Similarly, next year's Kingdom Hearts III will add new Pixar worlds to the Disney-flavored Square Enix series.

The first Incredibles 2 reviews went live today and have confirmed that Bird's sequel is designed to serve as a sequel to his original 2004 film, not a commentary on the rise of Marvel Studios and the MCU in the 14 years since then. Moreover, when it comes to the idea of the supers of the Incredibles universe (Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, Frozone, and so on) crossing paths with Earth's Mightiest Heroes and/or the Guardians of the Galaxy, Bird has a very simple reason for wanting to keep them separate.

Bird was asked about the possibility of the Incredibles and MCU's superheroes joining forces during an IMAX and AMC Q&A for his sequel, and responded to the question with one of his own: "How about we keep these universes separate?" Thankfully, in a different interview with Fandango to promote Incredibles 2, Bird elaborated more on why, exactly, he's not excited by the idea of Disney's various IPs crossing over in a single film:

At Pixar we've always felt like Marvel is Marvel, and Pixar is Pixar, and Lucasfilm is Lucasfilm. And they serve everyone better, including Disney, if they're separate. If you start crossing them too much it's like when you blend too many colors together, it starts turning into mud. So, that may make a marketing guy's mouth water but I don't think it makes artists excited.

The Parr family works together as superheroes

Bird has spoken in the past about how he sought to make sure Incredibles 2 stands out in the MCU era by remaining true to what made the original movie unique to begin with. It's certainly possible that having the Incredibles characters cross-over with Marvel Studios' superheroes would serve to undo that effort, which seems to be Bird's main concern here. Such a crossover would also differ from what Wreck-It Ralph 2 is doing. In that animated sequel, the joke is that Disney characters are self-aware celebrities that exist online, as opposed to being in the same cinematic universe.

Even MCU movies sometimes struggle to blend their distinct tones and styles, whenever they cross paths during the Avengers films every few years. Pixar films are even more stylistically distinct by comparison, so it's easy to grasp why Bird is concerned that they would lose their flavor completely by trying to mesh together with the various aesthetics and overall vibe of the MCU. All things considered, it's a fun idea, but probably one that would be better in theory than execution anyway.