Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe: Coco 2 Returns to the Land of the Dead in 2029

Some sequels get announced with a logo and a shrug. Coco 2 got Benjamin Bratt. At D23 2026, Bratt took the stage to confirm he is returning as Ernesto de la Cruz, and Pixar unveiled the first concept art for the sequel: an older Miguel, Dante at his side, and another journey into the Land of the Dead waiting in November 2029.

Lee Unkrich, who directed the original, returns alongside co-director Adrian Molina, with Mark Nielsen producing. That creative continuity matters. Coco was never a formula film; it was a specific, personal piece of storytelling about family, memory and the music that carries both. Bringing back the two filmmakers who built that world is Pixar’s way of saying this is a continuation, not an extension.

A teenage Miguel, an unfinished song

The Miguel of the first film was twelve, chasing a dream with a borrowed guitar. The sequel finds him a teenager, which changes everything the story can ask. Childhood wonder becomes adolescent choice: what do you owe the family that raised you, and what do you owe the gift that defines you? The concept art leans into that shift, showing a Miguel who has grown into his music rather than sneaking toward it.

And then there is Ernesto. The first film exposed de la Cruz as the man who stole his partner’s songs and built a legend on them, and Bratt’s return gives the sequel its charge: the disgraced musician, by the D23 accounts, seeks his reckoning with the boy who dismantled his legacy. A villain with a grievance, a hero with a history – that is drama, not repetition.

Why Coco can carry a sequel

The original Coco grossed its way into the top tier of Pixar’s catalog and, more importantly, stayed there in the culture: the marigold bridge, Remember Me, and a third act that reliably reduces theaters to tears. Films that beloved are usually left alone. The exception is when the world itself has more to give, and the Land of the Dead – built on the beautiful rule that the dead live on while they are remembered – is a world with stories built into its physics.

Pixar’s current run shows the appetite is real, from the emotion of Whalefall’s big-hearted survival tale to the sequel energy around this season’s most talked-about performances. Family audiences are turning out for stories with genuine feeling, and few studios do feeling like this one.

Preview verdict: we are all in. Unkrich and Molina back, Miguel grown, Ernesto returning with unfinished business, and three years for the animators to make the Land of the Dead glow even brighter. November 2029 is a long wait. Coco taught us that the people we love are never really far away – and neither, it turns out, is this film.

The music has to grow up too

The first Coco’s soundtrack worked because its songs belonged to its characters – Remember Me existed in the story as a stolen lullaby, a hit, and finally a lifeline. A teenage Miguel raises the musical stakes in the best way. He is no longer a boy sneaking toward a stage; he is a young musician deciding what his music is for. Expect the sequel’s songs to carry that tension, with Ernesto’s polished showmanship on one side and the family’s kitchen-table music-making on the other. Bratt’s return makes that contrast playable in every scene the two share. Animation-wise, the Land of the Dead remains the most visually generous world Pixar has built, and an older Miguel lets the designers age it with him – same marigold glow, new corners of the city of the dead to explore. Three years of production is a long runway, but Coco earned the right to take its time. Some films you rush. This one you compose.

Also published on: