10 Disturbing Backstories Behind Your Favourite Movie Characters

2. The Cars Killed Off All The Humans (Cars)

This entry comes with the slight caveat that it hasn't been officially confirmed as story canon by Pixar, but given that it came from the mouth of the Cars' series creative director Jay Ward, we're taking it.

During press for Cars 3 back in 2017, Ward was asked about the absence of humans in the franchise, and offered up a surprisingly comprehensive answer. Ward said:

"If you think about this, we have autonomous car technology coming in right now. It’s getting to the point where you can sit back in the car and it drives itself. Imagine in the near-future when the cars keep getting smarter and smarter and after one day they just go, 'Why do we need human beings anymore? They’re just slowing us down. It’s just extra weight, let’s get rid of them.' But the car takes on the personality of the last person who drove it. Whoa. There you go."

Furthermore, Ward added that Pixar's "bible" for the Cars franchise has a number of restrictions on what the filmmakers can do, adding, "You’ll never see the doors open. Because the brain and the eyes are in there, we don’t want anything falling out of the side." Gnarly.

Though it remains to be seen whether or not Cars 4 will ever happen - over $10 billion in merchandise revenue says probably - it's impossible to look at these light, frothy animated films in quite the same easy-going light ever again.