5 Characters That Should Return For Cars 4 (& 5 That Shouldn’t)

Despite Pixar’s phenomenal track record of animated classics, the Cars franchise has not been as successful as they might have hoped. The films rank among the studio’s worst-reviewed and there doesn’t seem to be much fan interest in the franchise. But all it might need is one more shot to turn the series around.

While there are no solid plans for a Cars 4, there are some potentially interesting places the story could go. However, they would need to avoid some of the mistakes that the previous films made, including some of the characters. While the new story would benefit from returning fan favorites, others should be retired.

10 Should Return: Lightning McQueen

Lightning McQueen has always been the center of the Cars series. Though he may not be one of Pixar’s most beloved protagonists, he has had an entertaining arc and there are still plenty of fun places to take the character.

Cars 3 found Lightning facing the end of his career, but the film ended with him not quite ready to quit yet. While his mentor relationship with Cruz Ramirez would be worth exploring, it would also be great to see what the moment is that finally convinces him to walk away from racing.

9 Stay Away: Finn McMissile

While Cars was a hit and received decent reviews, Cars 2 remains at the bottom of the Pixar universe. The sequel made some really poor choices in which direction to take the franchise, including turning it into a spy story for some reason.

One of the new characters they introduced was Finn McMissile, a British spy car who is trying to stop an international conspiracy. Even when voiced by Michael Caine, the character seemed like such an unnecessary addition and it would be wise for the franchise to avoid going down that path again.

8 Should Return: Francesco Bernoulli

Though Cars 2 might have been a big misstep for the franchise, it did manage to introduce one memorable new character. Francesco Bernoulli is an Italian Formula 1 car who becomes the main rival for Lightning McQueen during the World Grand Prix race.

Voiced by John Turturro, Francesco is a hilariously arrogant racer who cannot help but insult Lightning every opportunity he gets. Even though the character shows some redeeming qualities in the end, it would be great to see him return as a continued pest to Lightning.

7 Stay Away: Chick Hicks

Each Cars film brings in a new rival for Lightning to face off against. In the original movie, that character was Chick Hicks, a loud and obnoxious racer who has no problem causing harm in order to win.

Chick is actually a pretty fun character in the first film and Michael Keaton gives a great performance in the role. However, when the character is brought back in Cars 3 as a sports commentator no longer voiced by Keaton, he just comes off as annoying.

6 Should Return: Cruz Ramirez

After Cars 2, the third film managed to rebound the franchise somewhat by returning its focus to racing and attempting to bring the story full circle. They achieved this by bringing in Cruz Ramirez, a young aspiring racer Lightning McQueen mentors just as Doc Hudson did for him.

Cruz is a lovable, funny, and inspiring character. It would be great to follow her in her burgeoning career and see how she is establishing herself in the sport.

5 Stay Away: Fillmore

The collection of characters in Radiator Springs is a bit of a mixed bag. While some of them are funny and memorable, others felt like uninteresting stereotypes. Fillmore is an old van who serves as nothing more than an unimaginative riff on a hippie character.

Though the character fails to offer anything new from the beginning, once voice actor George Carlin died and was replaced by someone doing a poor George Carlin impression, he became even duller.

4 Should Return: Louise Nash

One of the most interesting aspects of Cars 3 was the brief exploration of the racing days of the past. A few of Doc Hudson’s old associates are introduces as part of the story, including an old female racer named Louise Nash.

Though only featured for a short time, Louise is immediately more compelling than the rest of the main characters. She talks about how she broke down barriers to become a female racer when the sport wouldn’t allow her. That is the kind of fascinating character the series should be following.

3 Stay Away: Jackson Storm

Jackson Storm is the rival of Lightning McQueen in Cars 3 and is, unfortunately, the dullest of the lot. He is introduced as the young hotshot who is poised to become the new champ of the sport. But other than being a cocky jerk, there’s nothing exciting about him.

Pixar is usually so good at taking a typical kind of character and doing something unexpected with them. For some reason, they don’t apply that approach to the Cars films and just make predictable and obvious characters. Jackson Storm is a prime example.

2 Should Return: Doc Hudson

The late, great Paul Newman added his considerable gravitas to the first Cars movie as Doc Hudson, a legendary racer who retired and eventually becomes Lightning’s mentor. Cars marked Newman’s last feature film before his death, and the character of Doc Hudson died as well in tribute to the actor.

However, it might be interesting to see a prequel period piece exploring Doc’s rise from nothing to becoming one of the titans of the racing world.

1 Stay Away: Mater

When people think about the Cars movies, Mater is probably one of the first characters that comes to mind. The simple-minded tow truck stole the show in the first film as Lightning’s new best friend. However, the character has overstayed his welcome.

The sequel made the mistake of cashing in on Mater’s popularity of the character by putting him front and center in Cars 2, and he quickly went from lovable to annoying. Cars 3 pushed him to the background, so Cars 4 can probably just do without him.

About The Author

Colin McCormick
(2030 Articles Published)

Colin McCormick is a Senior Writer with Screen Rant and has been a proud member of the team since 2019. In addition to his work as Screen Rant, Colin is also a writer of News, Feature and Review pieces at Game Rant. Colin has had a long passion and obsession with movies going back to the first time he saw The Lion King in theaters. Along with movies, Colin stays up-to-date on the latest must-see TV shows. While he loves to find interesting projects in any kind of genre, he has a special movie of crime stories that are infused with a little dark humor much like the work of his favorite author, Elmore Leonard.

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