‘Onward’ Director Dan Scanlon Reveals What’s Next For The Film

Pixar Animations Studios’ Onward was the first film already in theaters to be directly impacted from the coronavirus, so much so, the studio made the film available on VOD over a week ago and will hit Disney+ on Friday.

While speaking with ComicBook.com, Director Dan Scanlon revealed that there are ideas and plans to expand the magical universe down the road, with an actual game based on Barley Lightfoot’s favorite board game “The Quests of Yore” which was pivotal to the story of the film and a graphic novel centered on the history of the mighty Manticore.

“Initially, the thing I cared most about was the story of the brothers, but I did fall in love with the world and I did start to fall in love with the potential of the world, and we’re going to have a game. We’re going have Quests of Yore. The actual game is being developed right now. And that’s going to be super fun for people to actually play role-playing versions of the game. And it will certainly take place in the days of old and that”.

Scanlon continued:

“And then the other thing I’m super excited about is we made a comic book, a graphic novel that’s coming out, I believe in May. And being a big comic fan, I was so overjoyed to get to co-write it with Mariko Tamaki who’s one of the greatest comic writers around right now. And it’s a a prequel that takes place 800 years before Onward. And it’s the story of the Manticore during the days of old.”

Read: WATCH: 50 Easter Eggs In Pixar’s ‘Onward’

Don’t expect a sequel for Onward to be green-lit anytime soon. The film was only able to muster up $104 million at the worldwide box office before the studio pulled the film from theaters. I still contest that had the film not of been impacted with the current coronavirus epidemic, I believe Onward would have made close to Coco-type numbers ($807 million worldwide) at the box office.

Onward stars Ian (voiced by Tom Holland) and Barley (voiced by Chris Pratt) are meet-and-greet characters at the Disney Parks (sadly, parks are closed indefinitely) that said, we fully expect the characters to have a major impact when the parks open again.

Set in a suburban fantasy world, two teenage elf brothers, Ian and Barley Lightfoot, go on an journey to discover if there is still a little magic left out there in order to spend one last day with their father, who died when they were too young to remember him.

Based on Scanlon’s real-life brother and their experience growing up together without their father. The film also features the voice talents of Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld) as Ian and Barley’s mother Laurel Lightfoot, Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures) as the Manticore, Mel Rodriguez (Little Miss Sunshine) as Officer Colt Bronco, Lena Waithe (Ready Player One) as Officer Spector, Ali Wong (Ralph Breaks The Internet) as Officer Gore, and Kyle Bornheimer (Timmy Failure, Mistakes Were Made) as Ian and Barley’s late-father Wilden Lightfoot.

Onward is available on VOD now, and will hit Disney+ this Friday, April 3, 2020. Up next for Pixar is Soul, which is still expected to hit theaters on June 19, 2020.

Source: ComicBook.com

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