Not everybody is a big fan of Pixar's Cars franchise, but there's no denying it has been huge at the box office and in selling merchandise. It also helped launch the lucrative Planes series of movies, extending the brand even further. After the poorly-received Cars 2 went the espionage route, Cars 3 is going back to basics in a sense, although the foreboding teaser seen weeks ago suggests things have gotten dark for hero Lightning McQueen.
A new trailer shows the continuing maturity of the franchise, as the Owen Wilson-voiced Lightning McQueen deals with his own mortality. After a terrible accident leaves him a shell of his former fuel-injected self, Lightning now faces a new breed of younger and faster racers, including the arrogant Jackson Storm voiced by Armie Hammer. Lightning's only hope may be help from his new trainer, Cruz Martinez, voiced by comedian Cristela Alonzo.
Director Brian Fee tells EW...
“McQueen is not the young hotshot anymore, the kid he was back then in Cars 1. He’s in the middle of his life, and as an athlete, that’s getting up there. You have your whole life ahead of you, yet your career is starting to show its age. He’s looking in the mirror and realizing, ‘I’m 40 years old,’ and dealing with the fact that the thing that you love more than anything else, you might not be able to do forever.”
Cars 3 opens June 16th and includes the returning voices of Larry the Cable Guy and Bonnie Hunt.
