It’s Ayo Edebiri’s world, and we’re just living in it: the most workingest (and possibly most beloved) young actor in Hollywood has locked down another prestige project with Pixar’s Inside Out 2. Given that two major cast members (Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling) didn’t return for the sequel, it’s just as well that Disney added some buzzy new voice actors to the roster of Riley’s emotions, including Edebiri, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Paul Walter Hauser, and Maya Hawke. They’ll be causing havoc in Riley’s pubescent mind when the new movie debuts in theaters June 14.
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In the new trailer, Amy Poehler (reportedly the only actor offered a good deal for this thing) returns as Joy, who continues to be Riley’s peppy emotional cheerleader. But Joy and the gang are quickly beset by a new group of teenage emotions: Anxiety (Hawke), who “enthusiastically ensures Riley’s prepared for every possible negative outcome”; Envy (Edebiri), who is “perpetually jealous of everything everyone else has, and she’s not afraid to pine over it”; Ennui (Exarchopoulos), who “adds the perfect amount of teenage apathy to Riley’s personality, when she feels like it”; and Embarrassment (Hauser), who “likes to lay low, which isn’t easy for this burly guy with a bright blush-pink complexion,” per a Pixar press release.
With the advent of these new emotions, Joy, Sadness, Fear, and Disgust just aren’t “sophisticated” enough to steer the ship—so they end up bottled up and “suppressed” while Anxiety runs the show. Get it? Teenagers are irrationally anxious! (Sadness, fear, and anger weren’t among this writer’s suppressed teenage emotions, but we get the sentiment.) The OG emo crew will have to fight their way back to the fore by traversing new brain terrains like the “Sar-chasm” (it’s a big crevice in the ground that makes innocent phrases sound snarky).
Poehler is joined by fellow returning voice actors Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Diane Lane, and Kyle MacLachlan. Kaling and Hader, who supposedly walked away after being offered several million dollars less than Poehler, have been replaced by Liza Lapira and Tony Hale, respectively.