Pixar’s ‘Elio’ Started as a Queer-Coded Character but Studio Leadership Pushed for a More Masculine Rewrite, Sources Say

Pixar’s new movie Elio had a rough journey before it finally hit theaters, especially when it came to how the main character was shown.

According to people who spoke with The Hollywood Reporter, Elio was originally meant to be a queer-coded character. This idea came from the film’s first director, Adrian Molina, who is openly gay. But as the movie went through changes, the character was made more traditionally masculine, and much of the queer representation was taken out.

About two years ago, early clips from the movie showed scenes that Pixar employees and fans really liked. One of the coolest moments was when Elio made clothes out of trash, which the team jokingly called his “trash-ion show.”

He even wore a pink tank top in that scene. There was also a part that hinted Elio might have a crush on a boy, shown through pictures in his bedroom. But none of these scenes made it into the final movie. Some small hints remain, like a cape made from trash, but there’s no clear sign of Elio’s queer identity on screen.

These changes came after Pixar’s leaders gave feedback asking for a different direction. A former Pixar artist told The Hollywood Reporter, “It was pretty clear through the production of the first version of the film that [studio leaders] were constantly sanding down these moments in the film that alluded to Elio’s sexuality of being queer.”

This upset many people working on the movie. Sarah Ligatich, who used to be an assistant editor at Pixar and was part of the studio’s LGBTQ group called PixPRIDE, said, “I was deeply saddened and aggrieved by the changes that were made.”

She also mentioned that some members of the team left after the new directors, Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi, showed their version of the film.

Adrian Molina, the original director, left the project after the story and style were changed. Pixar said Molina stepped away to work on another project, which was later revealed to be Coco 2. The movie also added new cast members like Sean Gunn, who plays Maxwell Lord, reflecting bigger shifts in the film’s tone.

Even with all the changes, Elio came out in June 2025 and got mostly good reviews. It holds an 81% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and got an A CinemaScore from younger viewers. But despite the praise, it did very poorly at the box office, earning only $20.8 million in the U.S., which is the worst opening ever for a Pixar movie.

Fans and insiders think the removal of queer themes hurt the movie. One former Pixar worker said, “Suddenly, you remove this big, key piece, which is all about identity, and Elio just becomes about totally nothing.” Another added, “[The character] Elio was just so cute and so much fun and had so much personality, and now he feels much more generic to me.”

The problems with Elio are part of a larger debate inside Pixar and Disney about how much representation the studios want. In 2024, Pixar’s chief Pete Docter said the company should make the “most relatable films,” which some people took as a sign they might avoid stories about underrepresented groups.

This came after Disney faced criticism over how it handled LGBTQ+ themes in other movies, like Lightyear and the series Win or Lose.

Some insiders say the pressure to remove queer content didn’t come directly from Disney but from high-level leaders at Pixar who want to play it safe. One artist told The Hollywood Reporter, “A lot of it is obeying-in-advance behavior, coming from the higher execs at Pixar.” They mentioned other movies that had to soften their messages about things like environmentalism or family problems.

Many people who worked on Elio now wonder if Pixar really supports diverse stories. One former artist shared their frustration: “I’d love to ask Pete and the other Disney executives whether or not they thought the rewrite was worth it. Would they have lost this much money if they simply let Adrian tell his story?”

In the end, Elio shows how hard it can be for queer stories to get told in big movie studios. The film had the chance to bring fresh representation to a wide audience, but it was changed into something safer and less special. For many who worked on the movie, that loss still hurts.

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