FANDOM spoke to the team behind Cars 3 recently – including producer Kevin Reher, director Brian Fee and Lightning McQueen voice actor Owen Wilson – about life beyond the second sequel in one of Pixar’s most successful animated franchises. And with Lightning McQueen tackling aging in the series’ third instalment, and battling a younger, newer breed of competitor, we wondered where the story could go from where Cars 3 leaves off.
Producer Kevin Reher told us he’d like to see a film focused on the exploits of newly introduced character Miss Fritter, a school bus-turned-demolition derby racer.
“I’d like a whole movie about Miss Fritter,” says Reher. “She’s my favourite character. Just because Lea DeLaria was one of my castings and she was just great and she’s just a crazy, nutty… [with these] Maleficent horns. I just think she’s the funniest character in the movie.”
More from Lightning McQueen? [Just Beware of Mild Spoilers]
With Reher also suggesting that Cars 3 isn’t the last we’ll see of Lightning McQueen, does this mean we could see McQueen move on from challenging for the Piston Cup to forge a whole new career in the demolition derby?
As Lightning McQueen moves aside to let protégé Cruz Ramirez take centre stage, it appears that McQueen is about to hang up his driving gloves to take on a trainer’s role in any future films. If that happens, he’d be following in the footsteps of his own mentor, Doc Hudson.
But Owen Wilson hints that McQueen’s racing days might not be done yet.
“I feel like they left it a little bit ambiguous there at the end,” he says. “Like: ‘Does this mean you’re done racing?’ and he’s like: ‘No, I’ll never be done racing’. Sometimes a player becomes a player-coach so maybe he’s going to go that route.”
He could feasibly, then, juggle competing in the demolition derby with training upcoming starlet Cruz.
And Wilson, for his part, says he’d love to come back for a fourth film: “I love playing the character and being a part of the Pixar family.”
‘Cars 3’ is out now.