It's been 13 years since Finding Nemo was released in theaters, and fans have been begging Pixar for a sequel for... well, about 13 years. Now, fans are finally getting their sequel with this summer's Finding Dory, which will focus on Dory, the forgetful Blue Tang fish who helped Marlin find his son in the original film. With the new movie poised to take over the box office, fans are wondering if another Finding Nemo movie could be in the works. Officially, Pixar has yet to make any mention of extending the Finding Nemo franchise beyond Finding Dory, but given the extremely positive buzz surrounding the sequel, it seems all too likely that a third Finding Nemo movie will be in our future.
Finding Dory is Pixar's first sequel since 2013's Monsters University, but it's certainly not going to be the studio's last. In 2015, Pixar announced its lineup of films through 2019. Of the five films that have yet to be released, four are sequels — Finding Dory, Toy Story 4, Cars 3, and The Incredibles 2. With all the sequels planned, it's safe to say that Pixar is officially on the sequel train. That said, with the exception of Toy Story 2 and Cars 2, most of the Pixar sequels have been released long after the prior movie in the film series. Toy Story 3 was released 11 years after Toy Story 2, and by the time The Incredibles 2 is released in 2019, it will have been 15 years since the original hit theaters. So, fans shouldn't hold their breaths waiting for a Finding Nemo 3 anytime soon, but that doesn't mean it'll never happen.
It's hard to say what a third Finding Nemo movie could be about, though. After the sequel, audiences will have already found both Nemo and Dory, meaning a third film would (probably) have to focus on a brand new character to keep up with the "Finding" theme. The obvious choice would be Finding Marlin, but perhaps that's too narrow. There's bound to be at least one breakout new character in Finding Dory that could take over the Finding Nemo franchise.
Of course, it's possible Pixar will decide not to continue with the Finding Nemo franchise no matter how successful Finding Dory is. If Pixar is hoping to continue to sweep up the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, then it will probably decide to focus on original content when it's done with this string of sequels. Why? Well, both Cars 2 and Monsters University, the studio's non-Toy Story sequels, failed to earn Oscar nominations, suggesting that the studio has better Academy Awards luck with original material. If Finding Dory fails to pick up awards, then it wouldn't be surprising if Pixar switched its focus to original content for a little while before returning to the Finding Nemo franchise.
Even if Pixar doesn't announce another sequel to Finding Nemo after Finding Dory, that's no reason to lose hope. It took 10 years of Ellen DeGeneres campaigning on her show to get Finding Dory into production, and something tells me she'd fight twice as hard to make a third Finding Nemo.
Images: Walt Disney/Pixar; Giphy (2)
