First Incredibles 2 image is a blast from the past

For anyone following the news around the impending INCREDIBLES 2, you should remember director Brad Bird saying something about the movie picking up right where the first one left off. Well, he was in no way joking, as evidenced in the new image for the movie, which finds the family of superheroes – The Incredibles – preparing to fight a foe after a nearly 14-year-long standoff.

The image comes from EW’s first look issue, and in it we have this one image from INCREDIBLES 2, which find the team – Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson), Mrs. Incredible/Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), Violet (Sarah Vowell), Dash (Huck Milner) and Jack-Jack preparing to take down the Underminer (John Ratzenberger in the original). Like Bird said, it’s going to literally pick up after the first film. Like, literally literally.

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The story will center on Mrs. Incredible this time around, shifting from the focus of the patriarch in the first movie. We will see Elastigril extend herself into the fray as Mr. Incredible stays home to look after Jack-Jack at their new, secret hideout. Hunter spoke about this, and how different it is to see a female character be so bold and adventurous:

[She has] a real incredible sense of competitiveness and ambition. She throws down the gauntlet in this one. It’s so much fun to see a woman luxuriating in those two arenas, because women have for so many generations been brought up to not be ambitious or to not be competitive, and it’s fun to see Helen basking in those two arenas in much the same way that we give men license to do.”

The first INCREDIBLES stands as one of the best-reviewed and most loved in the Pixar canon, and with the superhero craze at its peak, there was little doubt Pixar would move ahead with a sequel. The dynamic shift between Mr. and Mrs. Incredible will be interesting to watch, although I feel this only means we will see the same plot structure play out in this movie, only with the roles reversed (Elastigirl jumping into action, with Mr. Incredible later coming in to help out), much like we saw in FINDING DORY. I hope the movie is more inventive than that and can justify bringing back these characters after such a long wait. I mean, could we at least get a tease showing they'll be made a part of the Avengers?

INCREDIBLES 2 hits theaters June 15, 2018.