Summary
- “Inside Out 3” could explore Riley grieving the loss of a parent, a new emotion, and complex mental health themes.
- If approached as an individual film with originality, “Inside Out 3” could satisfy fans while expanding Riley’s world.
- This potential storyline would make the movie more grown-up, relatable for those who have lost loved ones, and maintain the franchise’s emotional depth.
Pixar has been making movies that adults and kids love for several decades now, and 2014’s Inside Out is one of the most thoughtful, impressive, and fun. While fans wait to see if Inside Out 3 will be confirmed, they have a lot of ideas about what could happen in Riley’s life. In Inside Out, Riley is a little kid making a big and scary move, and in Inside Out 2, she’s an adolescent wondering how she can feel so many intense emotions at once.
Riley will likely feel a new emotion if Inside Out 3 gets made, and there are so many plotlines that the Pixar franchise can explore. There are a lot of smart fan theories on Reddit, but one stands out since it’s particularly clever. If Inside Out 3 dove into this part of Riley’s life, it would be heartbreaking, but it would also make for a strong story.
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I Love This Inside Out 3 Fan Theory About Riley’s Grief
In a Reddit thread, Redditor @UnderCoverDonuts wondered if Riley could be grieving her mom or dad. The fan wrote:
“Put Riley in her early college years, and have her deal with the death of one of her parents. There are a lot of emotions that complicate the process, and honestly from that perspective, it could make a very entertaining story with a huge message about mental health.”
Redditor @ProperCash4497 agreed:
“Grief is a subject that I think is important for kids and adults to understand. It’s pretty heavy for a kids movie but important for mental health.”
Since it would be a good idea for Inside Out 3 to feature Riley in therapy, it would make sense if she was speaking to a counselor because her mom or dad passed away. While it’s true that this would be a dark, deep, and heavy storyline, Inside Out 3 could be even more thoughtful and complex than the previous two movies. If Riley is a college-aged student or an adult who has experienced a horrible and tragic loss, this would allow Inside Out 3 to be a more grown-up movie. Since Pixar movies appeal to kids, pre-teens, teens, and adults alike, this storyline would work seamlessly.
It’s easy to imagine the control center in Riley’s brain figuring out how to deal with her loss. Several different emotions could fight with each other as they would each want to help Riley through this sad life change. It would also be interesting to see if Anxiety, the new emotion in Inside Out 2, could come back for a third movie. Riley would definitely feel anxious while grieving her mom or dad. Audience members who have lost someone close to them would be able to relate to her struggles.
Since Inside Out and Inside Out 2 prove that no one should be ashamed of how they feel, Inside Out 3 should also have a positive and hopeful tone. If Inside Out 3 followed Riley’s self-esteem journey and explained how she gets through the loss of a parent, it would be an interesting storyline. This would definitely be tragic to watch, but it would help a lot of people, too.
What Did Inside Out 2 Director Kelsey Mann Say About Making A Sequel?
In June 2024, director Kelsey Mann was interviewed by A Frame about Inside Out 2, and Mann talked about advice she got about working on the beloved Pixar sequel. She said that when she has been a fan of a sequel, it’s because there is “originality.” This is something that she thought about when working on the second part of RiIey’s story. Mann said:
“You have a lot of rules that are already figured out, and you can’t break those rules. You have to stay true to them. One thing that was really important to me very early on was the sense of doing something that expands the world. I got some really great advice early on. One of the directors at Pixar told me, ‘The sooner you start thinking of this film as an original, the better off you’re going to be.'”
It would make sense to approach Inside Out 3 as its own movie and not just a third entry in the popular franchise. As long as the movie has the same heartwarming characters that Pixar is known for, fans would be satisfied with the next part of Riley’s story.
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