An 'Inside Out' Spin-Off Series Is Coming to Disney+

The Big Picture

Pixar is developing a new Disney+ series,
Dream Productions
, set in Riley’s mind studio.
Pixar’s President hopes to avoid exclusively releasing films on Disney+ in the future.
Disney is prioritizing sequels and spin-offs in response to recent box office struggles.

Inside Out 2 hasn’t even hit theaters yet, but Pixar is already dreaming up a new spin-off series set in Riley’s (Kensington Tallman) mind. Bloomberg has reported that a new Disney+ exclusive show will be titled Dream Productions, and will focus on the movie studio of the same name that exists within Riley. We saw this studio in the first Inside Out film, and the entire self-explanatory function of Dream Productions is to create Riley’s various dreams as she sleeps.

Dream Productions represents new territory for Pixar as an animation studio, as they haven’t produced an animated series before (despite out-of-Pixar productions such as the excellent Buzz Lightyear of Star Command). Dream Productions isn’t scheduled to the first Disney+ show from Pixar, as the studio announced an original anthology series, Win or Lose, at D23 in 2022. Win or Loose is scheduled to release by the end of 2024, but Dream Productions does not currently have a release date.

Pixar has had a difficult relationship with Disney+ in recent years. The studios last three critically acclaimed original films, including Luca, Soul, and Turning Red, were all released exclusively on Disney+ amid the ongoing pandemic. This decision caused strife among fans and Pixar as a whole, and Pixar President Jim Morris even admitted he hopes they don’t have to exclusively release a movie on Disney+ again despite his interest in new shows:

“I hope that we will not release another feature film on Disney+. If we do more stuff for Disney+, it should be a series, and then that makes a clean demarcation between what we do for theaters and what we do for streaming.”

Pixar and Disney Are Doubling Down on Sequels

Image via Pixar

Following several of their films struggling at the box office in 2023, Disney is going all in on sequels in an attempt to recoup their losses, particularly when it comes to their animation department. Inside Out 2 will take place several years after the first film, where Riley has grown from a child into a teenager. Riley’s emotions are in for a creative upheaval when four new emotions are created, all of whom have drastically different ideas for making Riley happy.

Later this same year, Walt Disney Animation Studios will also be releasing a somewhat surprising sequel with Moana 2, which was initially intended to be a Disney+ series. Pixar is also creating more sequels with a fifth Toy Story film, once again proving the story of Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz (Tim Allen) isn’t over yet. That isn’t to saay Disney’s animation departments are abandoning original stories entirely, as Pixar’s next project after Inside Out 2 will be the sci-fi coming of age story, Elio.

Inside Out 2 premieres in theaters on Friday, June 14th.