Bing Bong’s possible return in Inside Out 2 has been addressed by one of the movie’s screenwriters. Bing Bong (Richard Kind), a character who originated in the 2015 Pixar movie Inside Out, was the former imaginary friend of the protagonist Riley (Kaitlyn Dias), whose emotions were anthropomorphized as the characters Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling). Bing Bong meets a tragic end in the movie after helping Joy escape the Memory Dump by sacrificing himself to a fate of fading away as Riley forgets him.
Empire Magazine recently ran a story on the upcoming Inside Out 2. During the piece, they asked incoming screenwriter Dave Holstein if there was a chance that Bing Bong would return in the animated sequel. Holstein coyly said that “I’ll leave that open ended,” seemingly implying that there is more than a slight possibility that the character could appear in the upcoming movie in some capacity.
In addition to quite a few new Inside Out 2 emotions, the upcoming animated sequel will feature the return of familiar characters including Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Disgust, Riley, and Riley’s parents. So far, neither Richard Kind nor Bing Bong have been confirmed to be involved in the new project. However, considering the amount of returning characters and the story’s direct continuity with the original movie, it is not entirely out of the question that the character could make a surprise cameo.
However, it doesn’t make sense for Bing Bong to make an appearance as part of the Inside Out 2 cast. Pixar movies are known for their blend of comedy and heartstring-pulling drama, with quite a few deaths taking place that have never been reversed, including Nemo’s mother in Finding Nemo and Carl Fredricksen’s wife Ellie in Up. Bing Bong’s sacrifice would lose all of its weight should his death be retconned, and considering how delicate the emotional balance is in a movie literally about emotions, it seems unlikely that he will be resurrected.
Ultimately, it seems unlikely that Inside Out 2 would actually pull this trick and diminish the value of one of the core scenes of the original movie. Given the caginess of Holstein’s quote, it is possible that there will be a reference to Bing Bong in some capacity, perhaps involving a flashback or a conversation about the import of the character and his sacrifice. However, Bing Bong returning as a major character in the timeline of the sequel seems like an outright impossibility.
Source: Empire Magazine