You are listening to The Next Best Picture podcast, and this is Dan Howitt's interview with the writer and director for Incredibles 2, Brad Bird.

Hey, everyone, it's Daniel Howitt, and today I'm joined by Brad Bird, the also winning director of Ratt 2, Mission and Possible Ghosts Protocol, the Incredibles, and of course,

this year's Incredibles 2. Thanks so much for talking with me today.

Great to be here.

First and foremost, congratulations on the massive success of Incredibles 2.

How gratifying is it that after 14 years, you come back to this world and see that people

still love these characters?

Well, it's very gratifying.

I mean, you know, you don't intend for this much

time to elapse, but the fact that the audience was not only there, but, you know, eager, was

really wonderful. I really enjoyed making the first film, and so returning to those characters was

a blast.

Well, yeah, so like you referenced, people spoke about a sequel immediately after the first

one came out. So at what point did you start to crack the story and work on the sequel?

What was the moment where you had the idea for the sequel and you thought

now's the time to do it? Well, I had the idea for the role switch between Bob and Helen, where

Helen would get the assignment and Bob would be, you know, need to be at home when we were publicizing the first film.

And I also had the unexploded bomb of Jack Jack, of the fact that the audience knew that

the Jack Jack had multiple powers, but the Incredibles did not.

So those two things I had right away.

And it was the villain plot that kept eluding me.

And I finally pitched, felt like I had something, you know, a few years ago, and I pitched it.

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