For a corporation that made its identify telling tales meant to endure for generations, Disney typically feels unusually keen to maneuver on, even from its greatest motion pictures. New characters turn out to be theme-park regulars and merchandise mainstays, however there’s at all times one other new film or live-action adaptation of a traditional ready to take their place. Except a film turns into a franchise in itself like Frozen or Toy Story, it typically recedes into the ever-growing Disney library, fondly remembered and watched numerous instances on Disney Plus by youngsters, however hardly ever revisited.
That gave the impression to be the destiny awaiting Coco, arguably Pixar’s biggest film of the 2010s. Practically 9 years after its theatrical launch, Miguel’s journey by the Land of the Lifeless stays one of many studio’s most visually spectacular and emotionally devastating tales. However not like Inside Out, The Incredibles, or Discovering Nemo, it spent many of the following decade as a standalone film. That’s lastly starting to alter.
Throughout a press preview attended by Polygon, Disney Lorcana writer Ravensburger formally revealed the primary Coco playing cards coming to the buying and selling card recreation — which had been beforehand hinted at again in January earlier than the launch of Winterspell. They are going to seem as a part of Hyperia Metropolis, a music-themed enlargement launching at prerelease occasions on Oct. 16, earlier than changing into broadly out there on Oct. 23. However that’s only the start. Miguel Rivera, Héctor, and even Ernesto de la Cruz are about to have a busy few years.
Coco lastly involves Disney Lorcana
The enlargement takes place within the titular Hyperia Metropolis, a brand new Lorcana setting the place artwork, know-how, magic, and — most significantly — music converge. Powerline (from A Goofy Film) performs on the metropolis’s stadium. Goofy – Dancing Famous person has the Singer capability and strengthens different Singers when he quests, incorporating the set’s musical theme into its gameplay in addition to its paintings.
All this emphasis on music makes Hyperia Metropolis a pure place for Coco to turn out to be part of Lorcana. Loads of widespread Disney motion pictures characteristic music — Frozen, Encanto, and Moana, to call just a few distinguished examples — however no different movie emphasize music fairly like Coco. The brand new playing cards proven to Polygon put that on distinguished show.
Mama Coco – Visiting the Park good points further lore at any time when a number of playing cards are positioned into your discard pile out of your deck. The flexibility offers her better worth as reminiscences accumulate, an applicable mechanic for a personality whose fading reminiscence practically erases her father’s existence.
Ernesto de la Cruz – Ruthless Musician presents a way more aggressive interpretation of the film. When performed, Ernesto can instantly banish one other character with the Singer capability. In a way, he’s as soon as once more eliminating his competitors — even when which means Mickey Mouse himself.
The set additionally transforms the film’s most necessary music into one in all its most thematically important playing cards. Bear in mind Me permits gamers to make use of characters from their discard pile for the remainder of the flip. These characters enter exerted, and the impact can’t be used on a number of characters with the identical identify, nevertheless it nonetheless gives the chance to get well a lot of characters as long as you’ve the ink. That transforms “Bear in mind Me” from a music about lacking somebody you like right into a recursion instrument that’s each mechanically highly effective and virtually painfully trustworthy to the film.
Everybody Is aware of Juanita, in the meantime, is a promotional music card that options Héctor performing alongside Chicharrón. It ordinarily attracts two playing cards, however attracts three as a substitute if the participant has no less than 10 playing cards of their discard pile — once more positioning the discard pile as Lorcana’s personal little Land of the Lifeless.
Hyperia Metropolis is made up of a number of unique neighborhoods. There’s Outdated Towne Hyperia, the Greenway, Kingswell Port, and the futuristic Gearwheel. However one whole part of town within the southwest is the Marigold District, which Ravensburger confirmed was impressed by Coco. The Marigold Bridge stretches throughout the district’s western canals, drawing its identify and likeness from the glowing bridge that connects the Land of the Dwelling and the Land of the Lifeless.
Welcome again to the Land of the Lifeless
Coco’s arrival in Lorcana can be noteworthy by itself, nevertheless it as a substitute feels just like the opening act for a brand new period. Essentially the most distinguished a part of this resurgence is Kingdom Hearts 4. The primary trailer for Sq. Enix’s long-awaited sequel launched in 2022 showcased Quadratum, a disconcertingly real looking metropolis described throughout the sequence as an “afterworld” belonging to a different airplane of existence. Sora arrives there after abusing the Energy of Waking to rewrite occasions and save his associates on the finish of Kingdom Hearts 3. He’s kind of useless — however not likely. He’s simply been faraway from his personal actuality and deposited someplace no one can attain him.
That made Coco an apparent thematic match for the sequel, even earlier than Disney formally confirmed it. Each tales revolve round individuals stranded on the incorrect aspect of the boundary between life and loss of life. Each additionally deal with reminiscence as one thing highly effective sufficient to protect an individual — or erase them solely.
The prolonged KH4 trailer proven at D23 in August revealed the Land of the Lifeless as the sport’s first confirmed Disney world. The footage recreates parts of Coco, together with Héctor performing “Everybody Is aware of Juanita” earlier than Chicharrón experiences his Last Demise. It additionally exhibits Sora touring and preventing alongside Miguel and Héctor, full with a brand new skeletal look and a Keyblade resembling a guitar.
Ravensburger additionally acknowledged throughout its press preview that Disney’s theme parks served as inspiration for Hyperia. In the meantime, Disney is creating the primary theme-park attraction primarily based on Coco for Disney California Journey. The attraction was first introduced at D23 in 2024, and an replace at this 12 months’s D23 confirmed building is effectively underway. “The attraction storyline will decide up a 12 months after the occasions of the unique movie,” the official Disney Parks Weblog put up reads. “The queue, which is able to start in Pixar Pier subsequent to Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind, welcomes you to a ‘casa museo’ devoted to the music of Miguel’s great-great-grandfather, Héctor Rivera.” The attraction itself is a ship experience by Héctor’s reminiscences of the Land of the Lifeless, emphasizing the characters, music, and Mexican tradition from the film.
After which there’s Coco 2. Disney formally introduced the sequel in March 2025, though Pixar was nonetheless within the earliest levels of creating it on the time. Disney has confirmed few particulars concerning the sequel, however an August 2026 report signifies that it’s going to deal with Miguel in his teenage years whereas Ernesto de la Cruz returns to get revenge. It’s at present scheduled for a launch on Nov. 21, 2029.
Taken collectively, Disney is investing quite a bit in Coco as a budding franchise, increasing it throughout movie, video video games, tabletop gaming, and even the theme parks. That kind of consideration is normally reserved for tentpole sequence like Frozen or Moana, quite than a Pixar film that’s remained largely untouched for nearly a decade. The story of Coco places a lot emphasis on the significance of not being forgotten and honoring one’s legacy. In the end, it seems that Disney itself is doing simply that with Coco.