In March 2015, Pixar president Jim Morris described the film as a romantic comedy and said it would not be a continuation of the third film. The same month, Variety reported that Josh Cooley was named co-director with Lasseter, having previously been head of story on Inside Out. According to Lasseter, the film was kept so secret that even Morris and his boss Edwin Catmull had no knowledge of it until the treatment was finished. He stressed that "we do not do any sequel because we want to print money" but rather to tell a new story. Cooley later revealed that development of a fourth film had actually begun shortly before the release of the third film.
