Pixar is getting ready to enter its next phase of original big-screen storytelling — and things are about to get a little supernatural.
While some of the animation studio’s biggest franchises are preparing for their own returns over the next several years, Pixar isn’t leaving its original storytelling behind.
In fact, another completely new world is already waiting for us.
During D23, Pixar officially pulled back the curtain on Ghost Market, a new original feature film set to arrive in theaters in spring 2028.
And this one sounds unlike anything Pixar has tackled before.
Inspired by Asian myths surrounding mysterious markets where the worlds of the living and dead can intersect, Ghost Market will follow Kyle, a fast-talking teenager and content creator from Chicago whose life gets turned upside down when his mother drags him along on a vacation to Hawaii.
What starts as a hunt for a late-night snack soon leads Kyle somewhere he definitely wasn’t expecting to go.
Hidden away in the middle of nowhere is a mysterious market — one that just happens to sit at the crossroads between the living and the dead.
Yeah, that vacation just got a lot more interesting.
The supernatural concept alone gives Pixar plenty of room to play with the imaginative worldbuilding the studio has become known for. But it is the idea of a modern teenager — and content creator — suddenly being dropped into a world built around spirits, mythology and the afterlife that could make this adventure especially interesting.
After all, what happens when someone accustomed to experiencing the world through a screen suddenly encounters something that can’t simply be turned into content?
There may be something deeper hiding underneath this ghostly adventure.
The film will reportedly be directed by Pixar veteran Trevor Jimenez, whose previous work includes the Oscar-nominated short Weekends, Soul and the Disney+ series Win or Lose.
Interestingly, Ghost Market wasn’t always destined for movie theaters.
The project was originally being developed as a streaming series before Pixar shifted gears and transformed the concept into a theatrical feature. It is a move we have seen elsewhere under Disney, most notably when Moana 2 evolved from a planned Disney+ series into a theatrical movie.
That makes Ghost Market another interesting piece of Pixar’s evolving theatrical strategy.
The studio is balancing the return of massive franchises like Toy Story, The Incredibles and Coco with new worlds including Gatto and now Ghost Market. And with Pixar increasingly positioning multiple movies within the same calendar year, audiences could be entering an era where sequels and original stories exist side-by-side rather than having to compete for the studio’s theatrical attention.
In 2028, that means Ghost Market will share the year with Incredibles 3.
Two very different Pixar adventures. One familiar superpowered family and one completely new supernatural world.
And while there is still plenty we don’t know about what Kyle will discover inside this mysterious market, the possibilities are already intriguing.
Pixar has taken us inside our emotions, beyond the land of the living, beneath the ocean and into worlds populated by monsters, toys and talking cars.
Now, it is opening the doors to a market where the living and dead meet.
We probably wouldn’t recommend wandering in just because you’re hungry.