Why Coco Doesn't need a Second Movie

By: Elizabeth Winkler 9/2/26

Almost everyone knows about the famous 2017 movie, Coco, written by Adrian Molina and Matthew Aldrich and directed by Lee Unkrich. And recently there has been an announcement that Coco 2 is in the works and will most likely be released in 2029. Coco does not need a second movie though, for many reasons. If you haven't watched the movie, it's about a young boy, Miguel, who has a love for music but he has to hide it because of a rule in his family.

Miguel Strumming Ernesto de la Cruz's guitar

When his great grandmother was a young girl her father was a musician and left home one day and never came back. The family believed for many years that he had just abandoned them and then associated music with being bad. Since this happened the whole family despised him and any music. Miguel had wanted a new guitar since his family had destroyed his so Miguel went into the grave of a famous man in their town, Ernesto de la Cruz, who was known for his music. When he went into the grave his guitar was placed inside and when Miguel tried to strum it he was sent into the afterlife with a dog he had just met on the street. When he gets there he has to travel throughout the afterlife on a journey to return to the real world. While he is there he meets his great grandfather and learns about the world of the forgotten which is the place people are banished to when they are being forgotten by their family.

While Miguel is on his journey he realizes that the rumors about his grandfather may have been incorrect and the reason he left them wasn’t his fault. As he makes his way back to the real world he tells his family what he learned while he was there. Once the family learned what happened they stopped their hatred for music and continued to let Miguel pursue music.

Now that didn’t spoil the movie too much for people who hadn’t watched it yet but considering the movie had made over 800 million dollars if you asked anyone they are likely to say that they have watched it. Now the main reason this movie does not need a second part is mainly due to the fact the ending resulted in every conflict being resolved and the villain or antagonist losing in the end. With there being no more “fights” or anything else the main character would have to battle there is simply nothing else to make a movie on. It would make sense if the author had left a cliffhanger or plot hole in the first movie because in that case you would be able to resolve them in the second movie but that is not what happened, but is there anything that could make sense for another movie?

Ernesto de la Cruz

Now the plot of the new movie is most likely going to be Ernesto de la Cruz becoming a villain because of the events of the first movie. IMDB’s description of the new movie states that, “some mysterious sinister masked skeleton is haunting and rules their world with an iron fist and sword and hates music.” This could possibly refer to him due to the fact that he is most likely seeking revenge on the Rivera family after they ruined his reputation. The only problem with this is that he is never depicted with a sword throughout the movie.

It is also possible that someone else is being introduced to us that we have never met before. The only reason this may be less likely is due to the fact that the family did not make any enemies except for Ernesto de la Cruz so therefore nobody would have a reason to come for the family. It is also possible that someone that knew Ernesto, wanted to avenge him and try to make the family pay the price for what they did. Adding the second movie could potentially be a really good sequel to the first film and add details to the first half of the story.

Even though the movie could possibly get a great sequel the fact that the first movie had a finished ending brings the problem of there not being anything to write about. The second movie is most likely going to be sloppy or unfinished due to this. Disney making a second Coco movie and it turning out bad can also cause people to dislike it due to the fact the second movie ruined it for them. Overall Disney should just leave the ending the way it was and focus on making different plots for people to enjoy instead.

Sources: IMDb and Disney Wiki