Incredibles 2 opening begins right after the original

Production on Disney*Pixar‘s upcoming sequel to The Incredibles is well underway for release next summer, and now studio head John Lasseter has told IGN that the Incredibles 2 opening will actually pick up right where the first one left off.

“It starts right as the first one finishes, so it just carries on,” Lasseter said, adding that only “a minute” will have passed between the first and second Incredibles. “It starts with the Underminer and a big old set piece. You know that at the end of the first movie when he comes up and you see the family dressed as superheroes, well that’s where start this movie.”

For those that don’t remember, The Underminer was an old-school supervillain voiced by Pixar vet John Ratzenberger. In a recently-released piece of of promotional art for the film (see above) you can clearly see Underminer’s drilling vehicle.

However, just because the Underminer battle will happen at the beginning doesn’t mean he will be the central villain. It may only be a fun way to start the film and show off the Parr family’s superheroic teamwork.

“One of the unique things about the Incredibles is it’s really a story of a family set in the world of superheroes. This one carries on that theme,” Lasseter added. “It’s awesome, the idea we came up with — simple as that… We love to really look at our own lives and look at what’s going on, and find themes that we know will resonate with the audience.”

Director Brad Bird will return for The Incredibles 2 as writer and director. Though story details are under wraps, he has previously hinted that some of the elements in the script are connected to ideas that didn’t make it into the original film.

“I had a bunch of ideas that I wanted to put in ‘The Incredibles,'” he previously told us, “but they just didn’t fit. Certain ideas fit, but other things make you go, ‘This is great, but I’d have to give up two other things that matter more to me to get this other thing in.’ So there were a pile of ideas left over from ‘The Incredibles,’ but it’s not a big thing. There were little scenes and things that I was interested in. I wanted to come up with sort of an over-arching idea that connected to the first film that went somewhere different. That’s the one that took a little more time.”

Released in 2004, the original The Incredibles featured Craig T. Nelson as the voice of Mr. Incredible with Holly Hunter as his wife, Elastigirl, Samuel L. Jackson as Frozone, Jason Lee as the villain Syndrome, plus Sarah Vowell as Invisigirl and Spencer Fox as Dash. The film brought in over $630 million at the global box office.

The Incredibles 2 will arrive in theaters on June 15, 2018.