Pixar announces Inside Out 2 and a new original, Elio, coming 2024

After nearly two hours of announcements about “reimaginings,” Pixar finally went ahead and announced an actual original film at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California.

The new Pixar movie follows Elio (Yonas Kibreab), a young boy who makes first contact with space aliens. It stars America Ferrera as Olga, Elio’s mother, who runs a top-secret military operation trying to track down a transmission from deep space. Elio ends up the first person to make contact and gets beamed up into a flying saucer. These aliens then take him to the “communiverse,” which is like an alien U.N.

“It’s here where Elio, a kid who struggles to fit in on Earth, accidentally becomes our planet’s ambassador to the rest of the universe,” said director Adrian Molina. “Ultimately, Earth Spain will rest on whether Elio can fight through his self-doubt and prove to the universe that that’s part of being human, just being yourself. Even if your self feels a little alien to everyone else.”

But the real money was young Yonas Kibreab, who took the mic with intense confidence to tell the story of when he was cast. “I was just super excited. I was jumping up and down, high fiving my dad,” he said. “When I got the call from [producer Mary Alice Drumm], we were driving to another audition, and we pulled into a little strip mall. Right in front of us was a restaurant called Olga’s Kitchen. At that point, I felt like it was just the universe congratulating me.”

Oh, also, Amy Poehler was there to announce that Insider Out 2 would be coming from director Kelsey Mann. The movie will take place in Riley’s head, but this time she’s a teenager, and there will be new emotions showing up.