WMG / Turning Red

WARNING! Potential unmarked spoilers below!

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Pre-Release

Mei Lee will attempt to separate herself from her Panda-half

As part of her family tradition, Mei Lee is about to have a coming of age ceremony where she embraces her Panda ancestry properly. Realizing however, she cannot enjoy the upcoming concert without embarrassing herself as her transformations are involuntary whenever she's excited, Mei tricks her mother and family. Instead of embracing the Panda as part of her heritage, she opts instead to separate away from her own mystical lineage. Mei runs off, her mother horrified. Her Kaiju Panda-half, enraged. It stomps after her across Canada, unless Mei accepts it as part of her, even if it means embarrassment in front of her boy band pop-idols, the Panda's rampage will never end.

• Confirmed in that Mei does attempt to separate herself (but fails and decides to keep it), but also Jossed and Inverted. According to the Golden Book, the ritual was to seal her Panda form into a talisman so she'd have more control over it into adulthood. It's Mei's mother Ming Lee, whose Berserk Button is finally pressed and transforms into her true kaiju form when her daughter absconds to see band 4*Town instead.
• Also according to the Golden Book, it was Ming who decided to separate her Panda-half from herself.

Mei Lee is cursed.

She used to be a normal girl until she got cursed into becoming a giant red panda whenever she got excited or stressed.

• Jossed. It's a family thing.
  • Hereditary Curses exist.
  • Maybe it's a blood curse in the veins of what Astoria Malfoy (née Greengrass) died of?
• Confirmed.

The Film Will Have No Antagonist

The movie will instead be about Mei Lee having to deal with her powers and transformation and having to control her emotions as well has having to deal with middle school and growing up.

• Semi-Jossed. According to print media (Like Mother, Like Daughter & Little Golden Book), the climax of the film will be Ming transforming into a kaiju-sized red panda as her fury at Mei disobeying her to attend the 4*Town concert was powerful enough to shatter her talisman.

There is no curse. Giant animal transformations are perfectly natural.

It's normal in this world for people who can't suppress their emotions to suddenly transform into huge animals, just as typical as your personified emotions inside your brain controlling your outlook on life. Mei's coming-of-age story is about her not being ashamed with her animal form, learning to love, and finding others who love and embrace it as a part of her.

• Jossed. Mei's transformations are a specific quirk of her own family for generations, as she finds out from her parents.

The Big Bad will be someone else who can transform.

Unlike Mei, this character's heart will be hardened from life as an outcast. They view their powers as a means to terrorize people and take whatever they want. Their transformation is a giant ferocious predator and they'll potentially want Mei to join them in exerting dominance over the lesser humans.

• Semi-confirmed. According to print media (Like Mother, Like Daughter & Little Golden Book), the climax of the film will be Ming transforming into a kaiju-sized red panda as her fury at Mei disobeying her to attend the 4*Town concert was powerful enough to shatter her talisman.
• The above is Confirmed.

Mei Lee will initially think that her transformation is part of her puberty.

Similarly to how Miles Morales initially mistakes his spider powers for his puberty in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

• Likely Jossed.

One of Mei's parents and/or older relatives has the same, or at least a similar enough transformation ability.

And then it was later passed down onto Mei.

• Specifically, it's from her mother's side, and this is why her mother meddles in Mei's life/is overprotective. In the climax, to save Mei from some external threat, we'll see her mother transform.
  • Confirmed. In the official trailer for the movie, after Mr. and Mrs. Lee see their daughter in her red panda form after her first transformation, they explain to her that their family has a mystical connection to red pandas and that the transformation ability is a trait that runs in their family.
  • It wasn't actually confirmed in any of the trailers since nobody knew if any of Mei's relatives could transform, however according the Golden Book, it is confirmed that Ming can transform, as well as several other of their female relatives. It seems to be linked with the red necklace/talisman they all wear which seals their red panda forms until they're broken.

Mei Lee will be mistaken as a giant monster or kaiju by the town and they will try to capture or kill her.

Mei Lee has been shown to transform into a giant red panda when she gets scared, excited, or stressed. The town will not realize that the red panda is her, so they will try to capture or kill her to keep the town safe. Think of it like Luca, but in reverse where Instead of it being where Luca is a sea monster turned into a human boy on land, Mei Lee is a human girl who sometimes gets turned into a large red panda.

• Jossed. The town, although shocked at Mei Lee's transformation, does not try to capture or kill her.

The story in the film is a story an adult Mei Lee is telling her daughter.

At the end of the movie, it will be revealed that the movie's story is being told by an adult Mei Lee in the modern-day, the time of the film's release, to her young daughter who is also capable of turning into a giant red panda when she gets angry or excited.

• Jossed, although she does Break the Fourth Wall.

This will be the first Pixar film with an LGBT+ protagonist

• Um...Luca?
  • Luca and Alberto may have had lots of Ho Yay, but nobody on the production staff confirmed them as LGBT+.
  • Mei is not shown as LGBT+. Jossed.

Mark Ruffalo and/or Laura Mooney will have cameos in this movie

• Jossed.

Mei was experimented on and her father is a Mad Scientist who is the Big Bad of the movie.

• Jossed. The trailer shows her power is the result of a quirk related to her ancestral lineage. Her father is a regular dude.

Neither one of Mei's parents has the Red Panda transformation ability.

After first transforming, Mei's hair turned red, which neither of her parents has. Therefore, the Red Panda transformations skipped their generation for whatever reason—perhaps the ability only manifests in individuals born under specific circumstances or it only appears every few generations. The reason Mei's mom becomes so overly-protective of her is that this is something that she has no firsthand experience with and is overcompensating for not knowing how to help her daughter through this.

• Jossed. According to the Golden Book, Mei's mother Ming can transform and only females in the family can transform. And their transformations seem to all be linked to the red talismans they all wear. Also, all her female relatives are shown redhead after releasing their panda forms by breaking talismans - so this is a sign of unlocked ability in her lineage.

Alternatively, the Red Panda transformation ability went away when they grew older.

• Jossed - when it was locked by special talisman and a ritual. Even Grandma as the oldest Mei's female relative was able to turn into panda after breaking her bracelet.

Mei wears the beanie to school to hide her sudden hair color change.

• Confirmed.

Mei's friends will also transform into animals.

Mei's group of friends are heavily color-coded like the Power Rangers which could point to them all being different animal transformations but can also be a Red Herring.

• Abby will turn into an elephant or a rhinoceros.
• Priya will turn into some type of big bird, such as an eagle or a crane.
• Miriam will turn into some type of lizard, such as an iguana or chameleon.
  • All Jossed.

Mei's mother is also a red panda.

It can explain why she's a huge helicopter parent to Mei as she is trying to prevent the mistakes she made when she was Mei's age and rebelling against her mother.

• But her overbearing parenting anger hasn't triggered any transformation. You mean to say that she can get even angrier? Now that is scary.
  • Or maybe she used to have this ability and red hair but slowly went away when she grew older and her hair turn back to normal.
• It can also be inferred that since she is older and more mature than Mei, she had more time to adjust and harness her red panda form better where she has full control on when she wants to voluntarily transform whenever she can. She's just never transformed around Mei or could have done so at a time when Mei would be too young to remember. The hair reverting to natural color can be when one becomes more in control with their transformation.
• Confirmed! According to the film's Golden Book, Ming does indeed turn into a red panda.

The Big Damn Pixar Moment^TM

What do you think will be the big traditional heart-wrenching Pixar moment?

• Mei becoming popular in school with the cool kids leads to her abandoning her group of friends in favor of the popular kids. By doing so, she destroys her friendships and ends up being influenced and peer pressured by the bad kids who make her commit crimes with her super-strong red panda form. Her friends then confront her to stop her from committing crimes and use her powers for good, but then Mei has a breakdown and snarls and either attacks or attempts to attack her friends to scare them and they run off calling Mei a "monster" and denouncing their friendship which leads Mei to realize what she's done and breaks down in tears and she apologizes to her parents for being a bad daughter and she reverts to human form when they all share a big hug, eventually trying to make amends with her friends as well.
  • Jossed.
• Mei will have a terrible argument with her mother, either with Ming declaring I Have No Daughter! or Mei disowning her mom (or vice versa) for the pressure she put on her (first the schoolwork and now the whole family curse). Mei will run away in her red panda form and probably be cornered downtown by authorities who think she's a monster before Ming arrives in her red panda form to comfort her daughter, leading to a big hug that turns them human again.
  • Jossed. She does have an argument with her at a 4*Town concert, but Mei runs away to the concert before the argument. It's Mom that gets in trouble for it.

There's some kind of drawback to Mei staying in Red Panda form for too long.

It could be that Mei will end up suffering from permanent Shapeshifter Mode Lock or that she'll become overwhelmed by her more "aggressive" emotions or something else entirely, but Mei will only learn about any potential side effects as she starts spending more time in her red panda form.

• There is the drawback that the more Mei transforms, the harder it will be to perform the ritual to lock away the panda. But Mei ultimately decides to keep her Panda.

There are two red pandas; Mei isn't the only one.

In the official trailer as Mei is having her dream the eyes of the two statues outside the shrine glow red, on the main tapestry the same happens to the two red pandas on it and in the end, both statues break and emit two columns of light into the sky. Both statues have different facial expressions and the tapestry depictions are in different poses.

All these hits lead this troper to believe that there are two red pandas, one is Mei and the other is an as yet unknown character. How exactly this second panda plays into things is unknown. An antagonist, deuteragonist, rival, long lost sibling, could be anything.

• Confirmed that Mei isn't the only one but Jossed that there's only two. It turns out Mei's mother Ming and all their female relatives are red pandas too.

Mei Lee will be Breaking The Fourth Wall

She was shown in the official trailer, interacting with the viewers as she introduces herself in the movie. This implies that she will be doing this during the beginning of the film.

• Confirmed, as Bookends.

Tyler will become a Dirty Coward as a Running Gag

Given that Tyler was on becoming one, due to Mei throwing the dodgeball at him teasing her for being a "mama's girl". it is possible that during part of the film, he will be running away from her in fear.

• Partially confirmed, as Tyler only feared Mei twice. The first time was when he briefly threatened to blackmail Mei after she transformed, and the second time during his birthday party because she attacked him for bossing her around when Mei needed a break, and for making fun of her family. Jossed for Tyler running away from Mei.

Miriam and Priya will be having a Ship Tease

Priya is shown to be smiling at her at the beginning of the trailer when Miriam starts rapping for Mei, and in the middle of the trailer, She was shown holding onto Miriam when both of them, along with Abby, screamed in Mei's Panda form.

Mei will go full beast at the climax.

After the standard third-act fight, probably with her mother, Mei gets so angry, she ends up becoming a fully savage red panda to the point that her eyes don't look human anymore and are just black and beady like an actual Red Panda. Mei then goes on an animalistic rampage and eventually stops when her mother, who also transformed into a Red Panda for the first time in years, calms her down and they have a heart to heart and both turn human again.

• Jossed, it's her mother Ming who goes on a rampage as a panda, and Mei has to calm her down.

We'll get a flashback scene featuring Mei and her friends when they first met.

Cause why not?

• Jossed.

The girls will meet 4*Town

They'll be at a concert where Mei transforms, but the band will think it's awesome and invite them to come onstage.

• Adding onto this theory, if 4*Town finds out about Mei's ability to transform. Perhaps they'll be in shock at first, but will eventually accept and love it, just like her friends.
• Confirmed. According to the Golden Book, Mei was supposed to perform a ritual to seal away her red panda form but since it happens on the night of the concert, she ditches the ritual to go to the concert in red panda form and they do end up meeting 4*Town.

Mei's friends will have a Big Damn Heroes moment.

Assuming Mei is in danger towards the end, the three girls will spring into action and try to help her.

• Confirmed.

The Big Bad will be someone who wants to steal Mei's transformation powers to be used for evil

Someone wants to create an army of super-soldiers based on her powers to sell it to any number of unsavory characters.

• Jossed.

Mei will argue with her mother the night before she first transforms.

Mei and her mother will have a bad argument—possibly about Mei wanting to do some fun activity with her friends while her mother refuses to let her go—which ends with a frustrated Mei going to bed where she transforms for the first time. It may be shown that the stress from the argument is the catalyst that awakens the transformations.

• Jossed. According to the Golden Book, she has an average day on the night she transforms.
• Jossed, although something mortifying does happen: Devon at the Daisy Mart is Mistaken For A Pedophile.

The government will be after Mei Lee.

• The government sends Canadian Armed Forces to try to take down Mei Lee in her red panda form.
• The Canadian Armed Forces will all come in with tanks, helicopters, and armored vehicles.
• Mei Lee and her 3 friends will be able to defeat the whole army somehow.
• Jossed.

The entire movie will be a rip off of Teen Wolf

A teenager in high school discovers she has a curse that causes her to transform into a creature. At first, tries to hide it then embraces it, only to abuse the power.

• Don't call it a rip-off.

Mei Lee and her friends steal a pick-up truck to haul her across town.

• In her red panda form, Mei Lee needs to get somewhere quick as possible but she is too big to fit in buses, trains, and all sorts of roofed vehicles.
• They see a pick-up truck stopped at a traffic light and Miriam suggests they should take it and that she be the driver.
• Priya is against the idea because they're all too young to drive but Miriam assures them that they'll be fine, given that she has a little bit of driving experience despite her age.
• They go through with the idea.
• Mei Lee approaches the man driving the truck, stating that they need to commandeer it.
• The man exits in fear, running down the street.
• Mei Lee gets on the back of the pick-up truck while the rest gets inside of it.
• Miriam is in the driver's seat while Abby and Pyra are in the passenger seats.
• Miriam drives to their destination erratically, freaking out everybody in the truck and others on the road.
• Jossed.

Mei Lee has a "You just don't get me!" argument with her mother.

• At some point, Mei will tell her mother "You just don't get me!" and eventually near the end of the movie, Mei's mother will either turn into a red panda or have an old photo of her when she became a red panda at Mei's age and tell her that she said the same thing to her mother and then she tells Mei, "I get you completely."
  • Partially confirmed. Mei and her mother will be at odds sometimes and have a few arguments, but Mei's mother is indeed a red panda.

Miriam is a thief among Mei Lee's best friends.

• Miriam has a filthy habit of stealing, much to Mei Lee's disapproval.
• For example, she would steal something from Tyler and despite what he deserves, Mei Lee tells her to put it back.
• Miriam would also steal candy from a convenience store, which annoys Mei Lee.
• Her thieving ways may come into play when she steals an artifact from the Big Bad to treat Mei Lee's transformation.
  • Jossed. Not once does Miriam ever steal nor come close to stealing throughout the film.
• Where did this stupid theory come from??

Tyler and his friends will be taking a level in kindness

• Confirmed, though Tyler doesn't seem to have any real friends until the end.

Mei's Classmates are going to come with the rat the 4*town concert

Well, they do appear to have accepted her Red-Panda form at a party and are with her during her ride.

• Uhh what?
• Huh?

• What's with the weird bullets?

Mei and Ming are going to make amends with each other.

• The ending seems to confirm this, but there are signs they're still at odds with each other.

Tyler will be connected with the Big Bad after they bribe him into helping take down Mei and Ming in their red panda forms.

• Jossed; Ming herself is the Big Bad.

Tyler unexpectedly meets The Big Bad in someplace, such as a diner or an alley.

• They state that they'll give Tyler anything he wants before opening a briefcase full of Canadian dollars in front of him.
• All Tyler has to do is join them in destroying the red pandas and he shall have it all.
• Seeing how much money was in the briefcase, Tyler agrees to the offer and joins them in defeating Mei and her mother, Ming.
  • All Jossed, as Ming herself is the Big Bad.

Ming is the Big Bad.

• She won't be revealed as the actual antagonist until the climax part of the movie.
• Mei and Ming will fight each other in their red panda forms.
• The fight ends up being a draw before they apologize to each other for their differences.
• Sometime after the fight, possibly a week later, Ming drops Mei and her friends off at the 4*Town concert before stopping Mei just to tell her to have a good time with a smile.
• Mei smiles back as if they never had a squabble to begin with before joining her friends to head to the concert.
• Confirmed with her villain status and the red panda fight, but Jossed with Mei's forgiveness.

Stacy will accept Mei's Red-Panda Form

Despite being shocked of discovering Mei in her red-panda form in the trailer, the rest of Mei's classmates approved her as a Red Panda. So, it is likely that Stacy will accept Mei as one.

• Confirmed.

Mei's Aunts are Ming's sisters.

• Unclear.

Mei will call out her mother for being overprotective towards her.

If Mei and Ming argue, the latter will call out the former for being overprotective towards her and trying to make her into what Ming wants instead of letting her be herself.

• Confirmed.

Mei and Ming are going to make amends with each other.

Despite her mother being overprotective towards her, she does care about her.

• Zig-Zagged; Mei hasn't completely forgiven Ming by the end, but they are getting there.

Mei is going to try to redeem her mother by calming her down.

She will try to show some concern for her mother and will try to help her.

• Jossed; She has to knock her out in the climax.

Mei and Ming will reconcile with each other

She will try to make amends with her mother, Ming, since she does care for her mother.

Sketch-comedy shows, such as Saturday Night Live, might do a spoof of this movie.

The film will begin with a How We Got Here moment.

Since Mei is shown to be talking to the audience in the trailers, she might be re-telling her own story.

• Jossed; It begins with a truncated history of Mei's childhood up to the first scene.

There will be at least one anime reference or Animesque moment in the movie.

• It would make sense, given that Domee Shi used to binge-watch animes when she was younger.
• For example, Miriam may have been collecting VHS tapes of animes since 1997 or Abby has a plushie that looks like an anime character.
• There may also be a scene where the movie pays homage to a well-known anime.
• Confirmed. There are quite a fair bit of these moments, such as when Mei grows Big Anime Eyes when she is exposed to kittens during a trigger test.

There may be a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue where it takes place in the present time and everyone has grown up.

Mei and her friends will all be in their 30s and will have steady careers as well as families of their own. Priya will be a doctor, Miriam will be a teacher, Abby will be a police officer, Tyler will become a failed rapper, and Mei herself will be a successful businesswoman. Still, Mei hasn't ridden herself of the red panda curse but learned to cope with it as she did 20 years ago.

• Jossed.

Post-Release

The temple fundraising for the stadium is court-mandated community service for the Lees.

• Now that it's an open secret that Mei and the Lees can transform into pandas, Ming probably had to make a public apology to 4*Town and Toronto for her rampage, especially if neighbors like Tyler's parents gave her a What the Hell, Hero? for endangering their children. To avoid being sent to jail for property damage, assault, and child endangerment, Ming agreed to a plea deal where the temple would raise money to repair the stadium, using Mei's transformations to get the funds. The judge gave her a slap on the wrist because he could see that she was really sorry, and Ming was truly regretful about the harm she caused. They're going to be paying off that debt for years, given that was millions in property damage.

Related to this...

Ming has to attend court-mandated anger management courses.

Ming has a hard time controlling her temper. Any suspicion that someone is either harming her daughter or that Mei is stepping out of line gets a disproportionate response. She has a track record, verbally harassing a teenage store clerk and assaulting a guard at Mei's school. The judge would say that he understands, but such behavior is not healthy or safe to others, and the stadium would be the last straw. She needs to go to therapy as part of her community service and learn to control her temper using healthier outlets.

• And maybe by finding healthier outlets to let her anger out, her red panda won't be Kaiju sized and be more controllable.

Mei's friends will at some point get the power to transform into other animals.

It would be cool to see Miriam, Priya, Abby to get animal transformations just like Mei, plus we don't know about their family or their life outside of what we see in the movie.

Priya is bi.

Her 4*Town crush is Jesse but she is seen dancing with a goth girl at Tyler's party and her friends cheer her on and appear to ship them.

The film is in the same universe as Phineas and Ferb

During the song "There's a Platypus Controlling Me", a teen oddly mentions that his teacher is a panda. It could be that Mei grew up and took a teaching position in Danville, bringing her panda with her.

• Somewhat feasible (considering that Phineas and Ferb takes place during the summers of 2007-09, and the latter two could have Mei being a student teacher), but not very, since student teachers almost never help teach middle or high school classes.
• Then 4*Town will eventually be forgotten as other bands and singers mentioned in Phineas and Ferb.

There will be a Disney+ Series based on the film

Since one of Pixar's animated franchises, Cars, is set to have a spin-off that will be airing in the fall this year, there will likely be a Disney+ animated series that will be based on the film.

• Canadian Panda: Mei Lee.

The ceremony of Panda sealing will greatly change

Now that the females of Mei's family have learned that there is a way to control the panda without sealing it in a talisman, the ceremony will be greatly changed as well.

• It might even be completely voluntary. Each girl in the family can choose to either seal their panda spirit in a talisman, or choose to work on their emotional control to stop inconvenient transformations.

There may be a video game coming out based on this movie and will most likely be available on the latest consoles, such as Playstation 5.

It will probably be a sandbox game where Mei does missions based on who she talks to or what area she enters. Before each mission, there will be a cutscene.

Magic is common knowledge.

Considering the worst thing that happened to Ming after her rampage was being expected to pay off the damages, magic is an uncommon occurrence, but is not unknown and is generally accepted as just another part of life.

Possible Ideas for future antagonists of Turning Red

Since the film, like Encanto, had no villains in the film, there will likely be possible future antagonists that might appear in the future.

• The Government's Leader.
• An Evil Counterpart/Arch-Enemy of Mei.
• An Evil Counterpart/Arch-Enemy of Ming.
• A descendant of the bandits Sun Yee fought.

Ming will be having an Evil Counterpart/Arch-Enemy of herself

Possible Spin-off Ideas

Well, since there is a possibility of there being a potential sequel, it is likely there are some ideas of what the Spin-offs of Turning Red would be like.

4*Town started out with four members and then later picked up a fifth member.

For marketing reasons, they just never bothered to change the name.

• Fifth member? My money's on Jesse, since he's explicitly stated to be older than the other members.
  • How is being the oldest signify him as the newest?
  • The fifth member is most likely to be either Tae Young (he's The Baby of the Bunch, so it's possible he wasn't old enough to join when they first formed) or one of the Aarons (hence why they have two, and need initials to differentiate them).

Related to the above: 4*Town is from the Quad Cities.

• The original bandmates were from Davenport, Bettendorf, Rock Island, and Moline. They picked up someone from East Moline but, like their hometowns, kept the original name.

There are quite a few more "Were-Panda"s of Sun Yee's line out there

The blessing, as seen with the various aunties, is not confined to a single line of descent and while many suitors may have been scared off it is vanishingly unlikely that Grandma (who does not seem to have grown up speaking mainly English) has no sisters, (grand)nieces, or even distant female cousins in the maternal line either back in southern China or elsewhere in the various diasporas.

Relatedly, there are a lot of places in the world where the aforementioned blessings would have remained convenient until comparatively recently

Face it, a(n at minimum) polar bear sized ursanoid with human level intelligence and the ability to shapechange into a fully clothed human woman and back in an eye-blink is a legitimate threat to foot soldiers today (especially in broken country and/or at night), let alone during the Warlord Era/Sino-Japanese War/Chinese Civil War period.

• Of course, many a government that learned of these women's existence would consider it useful to secure their cooperation (one way or another)... which of course provides a possible answer to the question of an actual adversary for the sequel.

Ming's panda is now the digital pet

• A small stretch given how the digital pet now looks like a red panda but who's to say it didn't take over the digital pet as a whole.
• It would explain why she seemed so bent on making sure it was fed, that they achieved a duel existence but that's a whole other theory.
• They showed the panda sides are still very much alive; just locked in their jewelry or whatever else they had on hand.
• Maybe their will be a debate over whether or not it will die if she stops feeding it vs It will still be alive just now more of an accessory then a pet.
• At the very least it could be baby steps towards Ming deciding to make the panda part of herself again.

Mei's panda spirit has its own sentience

Because they've bonded, it sometimes influences Mei's actions, rather than Mei necessarily losing control of her emotions. Her red panda was the one who developed the Precocious Crush over Devon, not the girl herself, who thinks the latter looks like a "hobo" in comparison to other boys, and especially the teenage heartthrobs that are 4*Town. The spirit disagrees however, doing a Wolf Whistle whenever Devon's nearby. It demonstrates its own autonomy in having a strong dislike of Tyler for mocking said crush, loves playing with Mei's friends, and cries when Mei is on the verge of separating herself from it during the Red Moon ritual. As gratitude for not sealing it away forever, Mei unlocks some more of her shapeshifting powers, able to use Super-Speed to cross Toronto in minutes changing back and forth.

What happens to a red panda when their former in host dies?

• Some people say the red panda spirits move on to a new member of the family after a previous one dies.
• Some people might say their existence are linked so after their particular member dies so do they and whatever bobble housed them just returns to being a normal bobble.
• Ming did say they left for a new world so who's to say their isn't some hoard of various Red panda spirits back in their home country? There was a secret compartment in the temple housing their family story. Who's to say the various artifacts aren't in there too?
• Safe bet there have been a few of their previous family members that felt death approaching so the person decided to rejoin with their panda spirit.
• The deceased is reincarnated into a regular red panda?

Turning Red takes place in the same universe as Scott Pilgrim.

• Considering the amount of insane anime crap Toronto people deal with in Scott Pilgrim, a Kaiju-sized Panda wrecking the Sky Dome would just be one more addition to the list. Their matter-of-fact attitude towards all of it is similar as well.

As a teenager and young adult, Ming's red panda form was big, but not kaiju-sized. Perhaps the size of a small house.

The size of the red panda form seems to be based on how much emotional stress its user is carrying. Ming's was already big as a teenager and young adult because of how much of an emotional burden she was carrying. Decades' worth of pent-up stress made it exponentially larger.

Turning Red will make a cameo or be referenced in other medias.

• For instance, Tricia Takanawa from Family Guy turns into a red panda just like Mei or characters that resembles Mei's friends are seen with their backs turned standing in line on Bob's Burgers.
  • Mei has a resemblance to Meg. Meg and her friends will make a Boy Band pose like Mei and her friends.
• Turning Red may also make a cameo in future animes.
• Maybe Robot Chicken could have a skit about Turning Red combined with The Incredible Hulk.

Ming's teenage experience with her panda was even more catastrophic and traumatizing than we think.

We know Ming lost control of her panda once and attacked her mother. We also know Jin saw her panda once. And obviously she must have had a 'first transformation.' What if all three were actually the same incident? That is, what if Wu Lee's disapproval of Jin (probably stated in extremely cutting terms) was what triggered Ming's first transformation, and the damage Ming did while transformed and enraged was when she hurt her mother? This would also explain Wu's statement to Meilin, that she and Ming were close until "the panda came between us."

Jin was and is Ming's Living Emotional Crutch

We see that Meilin controls her panda transformation by thinking of the people she loves most: her besties. And we see Jin trying to calm Ming down after Mei's red moon ritual goes wrong. What if the only person who could get panda-Ming to calm down and revert to human form was Jin? It would help explain why they've stayed together - and why Jin is the household peacemaker and Only Sane Man. He helped Ming control her panda spirit until it could be sealed away, and even now he sees his primary role as keeping Ming from getting upset.

Tyler and the girls used to be friends

When they started growing up they ended up getting swept up in all the changes and societal pressure and ended up with animosity towards each other, but when they were younger they could have been just as close as they are at the end up the film. It would explain why Mei knows Tyler is insecure, why Tyler knows enough about her family to call her a Narc, and why the girls are able to forgive him so easily when they find out he's a 4Townie - it shows that deep down he's the same boy they used to be friends with.

Sun Yee will visit Meilin Lee in her dreams to....

• there's no doubt in my mind that at some point Sun Yee will visit her descendant Mei, while in her dreams because there might not be a way for Sun Yee to visit physically

The Red Moon triggered Mei's early transformation

The gods intended them to have a month to decide whether they wanted to keep or seal the panda. While lunar eclipses occur roughly every six months they’re only visible from a given location on Earth once every 2.5 years on average.

The ritual was originally used by Sun Yee's enemies to seal her powers away

• Seeing as she can still transform in the spirit realm at the end of the movie, unlikely.

The reason Ming hated Mei's friends (especially Miriam)...

Is because she did had friends, and her friend was similar to Miriam. But when they discover her transformation, they took advantage of her like how she thought Mei's friends were doing the same thing. Ming realizes this, making her angry and lose control, scaring them away from her.

Tyler's newfound friendship with the girls will be short-lived

Tyler's parents will find out about their son hanging around the girl who previously mauled him and, fearing she may do it again, cut him off from seeing her.

• Maybe he could try to reason with them but if it fails, Tyler could just start giving his parents the cold shoulder.

Mei would've continued to rebel against Ming even if she didn't keep the Panda.

Even if Mei ultimately decided that keeping the panda wasn't worth it, it didn't change the fact that doing things against her mother's orders gave her the best thrills of her life. She would've tried to find new ways to rebel and disobey Ming, or even straight up say what she's feeling straight to her face after enough time. In addition, since Jin would've probably still found the recording she made, he would've at least try to convince his daughter that making up with her friends and apologizing was the right thing to do, if she didn't do that herself. I'm not sure whether or not she and Tyler would still have become friends in this timeline, but she'd probably try to apologize to him too.

The goth girl who guessed Priya's charade in Tyler's party (And also had a short line in the beginning) is actually voiced by Billie Eilish, albeit uncredited.

I mean, there's a reason the said girl is uncredited, even for short lines (And why she is not in the additional voices credits). Even though her brother FINNEAS is credited as part of 4*Town, She was offered a similar role like her brother in the movie in exchange for her and her brother doing the music for the movie, which she did accept... but on a condition she's not credited other than her contribution to the music, and only for a few lines, so no one will know she did voice a character there.

Ming and Jin are related.

I mean...in the Taiwanese (aka Traditional Chinese) dub, during the scene when Ming is rushing home after the "schoolground chaos", she calls Jin and asks him to go home immediately. And, in the conversation, she addresses Jin by his surname. Which, judging by the grammar of the language, suggests that Jin was always a "Lee", even before they were married. Let's face it, the temple is the Lee family temple, and is from Ming's side of family, that means Ming's maiden name is also Lee. Yet, people from a Chinese background around their age tend more to NOT marry people that have the same surname as them...it's sort of an old tradition passed down from the era when communication methods were limited, when there's a chance that that person could be a relative of the family (who shares the same ancestor). And maybe that's why Grandma Wu was so against it in the first place, maybe not merely because of the stupid old "tradition", but because Jin is indeed a second (or third) cousin to Ming or something... That also explains the so calm attitude Jin has to both Ming's rage explosion back then (TBH, not many man are still willing to marry after that kind of event) and Mei's "period" now...because he was always part of the family, and therefore he was always familiar with this "inconvenience".

What Wu didn't/doesn't like about Jin is his lack of ambition.

Even as a teen, Jin was easy-going and a homebody. This was just the person Ming needed to help her unwind, but Wu labeled him a slacker and thought he would drag her A student daughter down.

• Strongly implied by the book The Real R.P.G.: The Story of the Red Panda Girl. Jin says that he wasn’t like the boys Wu wanted for Ming and that he didn’t want to be a doctor or an engineer. When asked by a young Ming what he wanted to do with his life, he told her "I just want to make you happy."

Ming is the youngest daughter in her family.

Physically, Ming looks younger than both of her sisters. On top of that, she’s young enough to have a teenage daughter while her sister Ping is already a grandmother.

• This actually fit her background. For Chinese people around her age , it's is kind common for siblings to have a wider range of age gap.(Since people are tend to breeding more kids to increase the chance of keep the bloodline continued.)......And even until Mei's generation(born in 80s to early 90s) , it's still not that uncommon for a nephew/niece to be around the similar age as(or even obviously older than) their uncle/aunt.

Jin was to Ming what Mei's friends are to Mei.

Mei and her friends demonstrate that having someone who unconditionally loves and accepts you even after seeing the panda does wonders for being able to control it. Ming is strongly implied to have had a Friendless Background, so Jin not only being willing to deal with Wu to stay with Ming, but also staying with Ming even after her panda emerged, is probably a big reason why Ming only went on a rampage once or twice^note depending on whether or not her rampage after Wu's Parental Marriage Veto was also the first time her panda spirit emerged prior to the events of the movie, and how she was able to not destroy Toronto, even accidentally, before it could be sealed away.

The larger a panda spirit is, the more worked up the host has to get in order for it to emerge (at least before the host gains full voluntary control over it).

The panda spirit was meant to defend the host's family, but a larger, angrier spirit has a higher risk of collateral damage. So those with larger pandas have to get more angry or frightened before it comes out involuntarily, so as to increase the chances that it only comes out when the Godzilla Threshold is reached and the collateral damage is worth it.

This is a double-edged sword, as the amount of stress needed to release a larger panda is much closer to the tipping point where they go on an uncontrollable rampage (as Ming so kindly demonstrates). Conversely, smaller, more well-tempered pandas don't need as much stimulus to emerge, hence why Mei's panda tends to pop out at the slightest provocation—even if it is overreacting, it can't do as much damage, so risking that is worth dealing with smaller but still legitimate threats.

Sequel Theories

The sequel will be about a boy who becomes a giant red fox instead.

• Likewise, his trigger will be strong emotions.
  • Unlike in Mei's case, there's no one in his family he can relate to, so he MUST keep the secret.
  • Mei will be suspicious of him but he refuses to believe that she knows what it is like.
  • Perhaps instead of being a human boy who can turn into a giant fox, he's a giant fox who can turn into a human boy.
    • Foxes who turn into humans are part of Japanese folklore, so perhaps this fox who turns into a human is Japanese.

In the future the kid Mei thinks is either her son or daughter will/won't Panda Out. Because they're Trans

Either she'll have a kid she thinks is a daughter, who never pandas out and eventually comes out as a trans boy OR a kid she thinks is a son who DOES Panda out and comes out as a trans girl. This could also happen with any of Mei's cousins such as Vivian.

• It would be hard to do a sequel about a trans-man failure to panda-out since there seems to be a variability in when the panda shows so it wouldn't be clear that they're trans rather then just a late bloomer, plus who wants a sequel without red pandas? However, a trans girl being surprised by panda abilities she was told she would never have, with the panda moving from representing coming of age via puberty to representing coming-of-age via coming out/transitioning their gender would work pretty well. Sadly despite Disney being somewhat supportive of LGBT+ community I don't see them willing to commit to having a trans character as the protagonist of one of their movies any time soon.
• Alternatively, the kid is a trans boy who does panda out. The panda contributes to his dysphoria due to being associated with female puberty and/or lessens his dysphoria due to not being an as obviously female body. There is conflict involving taking testosterone which reduces dysphoria-related emotions but is perceived as increasing aggressiveness as a panda.

The next movie will focus on Mei's kids with Mei being the polar opposite of her mom and needing to learn to be stricter

• In the Sequel Mei tries so hard to not be her mom that she goes the opposite extreme and becomes way too lenient, trying to be her daughters friend and supportive but ultimately allowing her daughter to walk over her and make bad decisions. Mei needs to learn to not resent her mother's controlling nature so much and recognize sometimes she needs to be a mother, not just a friend, by setting limits and being stricter.

Mei's daughter hates the publicity the red panda brought her mom and hates that others are waiting for her to panda out

• Mei seems to be showing off her panda readily, already demonstrated she could generate money from it, and has a *huge* debt to help pay off for the skydome, so Mei goes with it and becomes a sort of panda celebrity for money. She becomes popular and well known, as does the source of her abilities, so when she has a daughter everyone is anxiously waiting the daughter gaining her panda abilities and there being a panda 2.0. Unfortunately Mei's daughter hates the publicity and attention her mother gets and hates that the world seems to be expecting her to follow in her mother's footsteps, so when her panda does come she hides it and pretends the ability didn't pass down to her.

In a possible sequel, Mei's daughter by law but not blood unlocks the panda.

• In this theory, either Mei adopted a child, or she and Miriam got married and both got pregnant via a surrogate so Miriam's biological daughter would be considered Mei's child both by law (since she's married to Miriam) and love (since she obviously would love her to pieces) but is not blood-related to the Lee family and thus would be assumed to be ineligible for gaining the panda. However, in a move that shows family is just as much about love as it is blood ties (and often more so about the former), she unlocks the panda, possibly at a critical moment to save a family member who is a Lee by blood (probably her sister or Mei or both), and cements her status as a Lee.
  • The conflict of the sequel with the above would be Miriam's daughter being both intentionally (by school bullies) and unintentionally (by certain family members) made to feel that she's an outsider to her family, despite both her mothers' reassurances.

Everyone in the Lee family will learn to control their red panda, including Ming.

• And Ming will be the last one to show that she can control it by coming to the rescue in the last second.

They learn they have family from their home country.

• Self explanatory but maybe, in their time, they reach the age of DNA tests, so they learn they have family that still lives back in their home country. The only difference is their side embraces their panda sides and encourage Mei and her family to do the same. Maybe the relatives have a daughter that resents her panda side so she shows interest in getting rid of it.

Mei will harness her powers, but inadvertently transform others into giant red pandas.

Bonus pages in the official storybooks depict Mei visualizing her friends all transformed and showing off their panda forms. In Turning Red 2 (Or should we call it Turning Redder?) Mei will spread the blessing of Sun Yee onto people who aren't related by blood. Consequently, they can't control their newfound panda spirits just as she couldn't in the beginning either. They end up turning everyone they come into contact with into supernatural beasts. Mei tries to hide her mistake, but eventually the spread can no longer be contained or ignored. The Lee family will be understandably freaked out, when they see panda people starting to appear everywhere.

• They should do this just for the Pun Potential of the title: Turning Red 2: Pandademic.
  • Actually, that's a fantastic title, since the supernatural has now become The Virus. Mei probably learns how to make her friends "panda-out". Her classmates take notice getting jealous and desperate they want to be included too, so that's how Pandademic 20XX begins to spread. But all the girls find they can't transform back, and while the boys can't change, they act as carriers of the panda spirits that unawarely spread it out even faster by accident. It's Played for Laughs as women are transforming everywhere, but soon becomes serious as the red pandas are akin to a wild fire that'll consume Canada, and the rest of the world.
  • Mei-Mei unable to fix her mistake may even have to make an appeal to the Panda God of the Red Moon (as seen in Sun Yee's backstory) begging him to take the blessing of the heavens she had squandered away, at the terrible cost of losing her own Panda spirit (said "sacrifice" maybe a Secret Test of Character to see if she was worthy to be a bearer of his gifts).

Ming will use her kaiju powers for good.

The Godzilla Threshold will be crossed somehow, through uncontrollable change caused by the panda spirits running amok. Ming will help her daughter save Toronto (and repay the city her debt incurred in destroying the Sky Dome).

One of Mei's friends will get their own spirit animal unlocked and Mei has to help control it like they helped her control her panda form

Maybe Sun Yee will bless one of Mei's friends with their own spirit animal as her way of saying thank you for helping her descendant learning to accept her Panda form as a part of herself and helped Ming when her curse caused her to go berserk.

So maybe they get a spirit of their own animal and they have learn to control it like Mei Mei did.

Similar to the above, each of Mei's friends will be revealed to have their own spirit animal based on their individual culture, clothing color, and personality.

Possibilities:

• Miriam is implied to be Jewish, wears green, and is very kind and empathetic. Sheep are seen as kind and innocent in Judaism, so maybe Miriam will be a green sheep?
  • Or she could end up with the form of a collie, a herding dog known for their caring but boisterous personalities; the form could either be green or the same copper color as her hair with her retaining her green eyes while transformed.
  • She could also turn into some type of big cat — like a lynx or a lion — due to her infamous “boots and cats” beatboxing bit. Lions are symbolically important in Judaism, and lynxes are local to Eastern and Central Europe.
• Priya is Indian, wears yellow, and is extremely stoic. She may be a pangolin, which are known for their protective body armor.
  • As a reference to her gothic personality, her first question upon seeing Mei's panda form, and that the animal can be native to India, Priya could alternatively become a wolf.
• Abby is Korean, wears purple, and is the most hyperactive and aggressive. She may end up being a purple-furred Asian badger.
• Bonus points if Tyler gets one too. Since he's half-black and half-Vietnamese, maybe he'll be a liger to represent his mixed African and Asian ancestry. Or he could be a bunny, because it would infuriate him.

Alternatively, the other girls won't have animal spirits, but they will discover their own distinct powers related to their respective backgrounds.

• Miriam might have the ability to create golems, which she'll discover by accident while making a clay sculpture during art class that suddenly comes to life.
• Priya may have the power to communicate with elephants, as a reference to the war elephants used by various South Asian empires. She'll discover this ability while on a zoo trip.
• Abby may have the ability to create healing flowers, as a reference to the legend of Princess Bari, which is foreshadowed by the flowers on her outfit. It would make a good ironic contrast to her hyper and aggressive personality.

The Sequel will focus on Mei’s mother, Ming

The Sequel film could focus on Ming, trying to use her powers for good, while spending time with her daughter, Mei.

Possible Ideas for who might be Big Bad on the Sequel

While the film didn't have a real antagonist as a Big Bad, besides Ming (who wasn't evil but just overprotective towards her daughter), the sequel could have a Big Bad in the film.

• The Government.
• Evil scientists.
• Chinese demons.
• The Chinese gangster Benny Blacktooth, who was originally meant to be in the first movie.
• a foil to one of the main characters
• Going with the above idea of Mei's friends unlocking their own animal spirits, another person with an animal spirit who let it take over like Mei's grandmother said would happen with her.
• a descendant one of Sun Yee's foes who made it their life's work to snuff out the Red Panda.
• a person who collects exotic animals, and they have their sights on Mei and potentially her friends if they do have an animal spirit.

The sequel will take place in the 2020s

And it will focus on Mei and her friends as adults, reconnecting after years apart.

• Based on age and original film release dates, one of the girls has married a human from earlier Pixar films, like Andy or one of the Parrs. Seeing as it’s Pixar, we only get a name drop if it’s Andy, but a full crossover if Mei, in particular, marries another superpowered individual.

A possible sequel would be Mei and her family having a fight with a member of their family that fell to the dark side.

Said relative would be a member of the family that is the exact opposite of Mei: someone who hated the red panda transformation and wanted to get it removed, but it was too late.

Mei will have a doppelganger of a girl named Mai who can turn into a shadow red panda.

• Mai looks exactly like Mei, only she wears dark clothing.
• Mai's red panda form looks similar to Mei's, only the majority of the fur is black and looks a lot more sinister.
• With that advantage, Mai will frame Mei for the crimes committed.
• Mei must defeat Mai and clear her name.

If Mei marries a lady in the future, that lady will also gain the panda

Since the original reason the Red Panda transformation was given to the family was so the women could protect their families as the men were lost to the war, it'd make sense that even if a woman enters the family through marriage they'd also gain the panda. It also would go well with Turning Red's minor themes of keeping tradition alive as the times change.

• Another idea that I really love involving LGBT characters interacting with the Red Panda is that of a trans girl and a trans guy being born into the family and getting/not getting their powers is completely linked to the gender they identify as.

So to sum it up, an idea I like for a sequel is Mei as an adult, marrying Miriam and having two kids, one trans guy and one trans girl, and seeing how those queer elements that are just part of their life now interacts with the tradition, something plenty of other queer people of color might relate with.

Mei will become a superhero

Using her newfound panda powers, Mei will honor Sun Yee by becoming a superhero and protecting Toronto from crime.

• Expanding, her friends end up getting powers in some way, either via spirit animals like Mei, some kind of superpower origin or possibly in Tyler's case, going the Batman route.

The Sequel will reveal that there are other magical shapeshifters in this world

• Upon hearing about Mei, one comes to her to seek help in peacefully co-existing with their Spirit, something that does not suit this individual's family as they believe they are destined to be destructive & evil.

4*Town will have broken up.

Assuming there is a Time Skip, it'll be mentioned that 4*Town broke up at some point, possibly with one of the members going on to have a successful solo career. The older Mei will be somewhat embarrassed by her past obsession with the band and openly wonder why she liked them so much (though deep down, she secretly still enjoys their music).

A follow up will actually be a prequel movie about Sun Yee

• Her backstory would be neat to see fully realized.

Mei's cousin Vivian will appear in the sequel

• Mei visits Vivian. Vivian lives in Vancouver (which, like Toronto, has a large Chinese population). Vivian has trouble turning back human and often pandas out when asleep. Mei and Vivian discover Vivian's panda is being triggered and sustained by subconscious thoughts about Vivian's suppressed LGBT identity and coming out to Vivian's friends and family results in gaining full control of the panda like Mei.

If there's some kind of TV series, one of the episodes will be about how Ming and Miriam moved past Ming's dislike for Miriam and Miriam's hurt over said dislike.

• The episode would probably be mostly flashback, though it could also work as part of a more standard episode if the series took a similar route to Big Hero 6 The Series and had the first episode be a bridge between the day of the red moon ceremony and the movie's epilogue. Either way, Ming somehow finds out/figures out that Miriam A) is aware of Ming's now-previous dislike of her and B) doesn't realize said dislike is gone so Ming seeks a way to prove she's changed and make up for the hurt she caused Miriam.

There's a branch of Sun Yee's family who resents Mei's for both their initial rejection of the panda and their now implied ability to be open about it.

This branch of the family ended up moving to an isolated village, possibly with other shapeshifter families who got their powers in a similar manner to Sun Yee, for protection and in present day, are furious that the branch who called the family blessing an inconvenience and then abandoned their homeland gets to profit from the panda. So they'll come after Mei, the only member of her branch currently with powers, for revenge.

More possible TV series episode ideas.

• Tyler's parents are uneasy about his new friendship with the girls (or rekindled if the series decides to use the We Used to Be Friends theory); the kids have to prove it's genuine.
• Election Day Episode where Tyler and Mei, in a reference to the deleted scene where they got into a Volleying Insults contest during a debate, are both running for class president/representative. It starts off friendly but their opponent turns things sour, causing the episode to become a Feud Episode; Miriam, Priya and Abby end up caught in the middle and work to prove that there's sabotage afoot, enabling Tyler and Mei to repair their friendship and run a clean election, with the saboteur being disqualified.
• A Day in the Limelight episode for Tyler and Miriam where they run into each other at the orthodontist and bond over their shared experience of braces and how much they can suck.
• Episodes where we actually meet Miriam, Priya and Abby's families, including possibly even some holiday specials for holidays related to their cultures like Passover or Hanukah for Miriam (removing the "Ambiguous" part of that element of her characterization), Holi or Dwali for Priya, the Lunar New Year for Abby (which would also involve Mei and Tyler's families as the Lunar New Year is important in China and Vietnam as well as Korea) and Kwanzaa or Children's Day for Tyler (Children's Day could also work as a cultural comparison for Tyler, Abby and Mei, whose families would all celebrate it but in different ways and even on different days). We could also get a flashback episode about Miriam's bat mitzvah, possibly as part of Ming, in trying to better understand Mei's friends, learning more about the culture of the friend she most rejected; alternately, if Miriam isn't actually 13 during the events of the movie (whether because her age isn't actually confirmed in the movie or the show gives a Retcon), an episode about her 13th birthday and the accompanying ceremony could be done.
• "Character gets bullied". This could go several ways including but not limited to "Tyler gets hassled for hanging out with four girls", "Someone at school decides Mei is a freak and harasses her", "Miriam's tomboyish nature ends up making her the target of a sexist jerk" and "One of the girls gets an admirer who won't take no for an answer". Regardless of the exact events, the other members of the group affirm their status as True Companions and help their victimized friend stand up to their bully/bullies.
  • If this episode got made, it would be neat if they included Tyler denouncing the "if someone bullies you, they're only doing it because they like you" school of thought, stating that while he is dating Mei/Abby (assuming A) he ends up with either girl and B) this episode takes place after that becomes official), he didn't have feelings for them while he was being a bully and frankly thinks that line of thought is stupid and potentially dangerous. "If someone likes you, they shouldn't hurt you."
• A Will They or Won't They? arc for Mei and either Miriam or Tyler (depending on how the show staff choose to go), ultimately ending in a Relationship Upgrade; this arc would be accompanied by The Reveal that Priya and the goth girl from Tyler's party are a steady couple and if the show staff goes with Mei/Miriam, Tyler and Abby could get together in the background.
• At least one episode that confirms how Mei, Miriam, Priya and Abby became besties; if there wasn't an event that brought the four of them together at one time, the show could either have an episode per friend or have a single episode that's a collection of flashbacks prompted by Tyler asking "How did you guys become friends anyway?"
• An introductory episode to each of the potential villains.
• Mei's cousin Vivian comes to visit. Mei tries to be welcoming but due to Lily's bragging, resents Vivian. Ultimately she finds out that Vivian has envied Mei since before Mei's panda arriving because Mei has friends while Vivian doesn't; Mei quickly offers to let Vivian join her friend group and the others have no issue with this.

Evil Counterpart Ideas for the series

With this theory, Mei and each of her friends will end up with an Evil Counterpart, who subverts one of their core personality traits. May or may not ultimately end up in a Villain Team-Up and some or all of them could end the series with a Heel–Face Turn.

• Mei: Mei's could go one of two ways. A) In contrast to Mei, this person resented their family to the point of taking their shapeshifting/other magical ability as a sign that they should ditch their family and have since taken to acting in the exact opposite manner of their family with their powers. B) The counterpart takes great pride in their family and has absolute loyalty to said family...except said family is ANYTHING but worthy of this devotion. In either case, Mei attempts to show her counterpart the light and may or may not succeed.
• Miriam: This counterpart at first comes off as quite similar to Miriam and they even hit it off at first...until Miriam discovers that her counterpart's role as Team Mom is a cover for being a Gold Digger and all of her "kindness" towards her "friends" is meant to manipulate them into giving her what she wants and that, in stark contrast to Miriam's desire to see her friends as their best selves on their terms, this counterpart is very strict about her "friends" filling the roles she's scripted for them, kicking out anyone who tries to rebel and playing the victim in the aftermath. Miriam is disgusted and venomously declares her intention to have nothing to do with this other girl.
• Priya: Priya's counterpart would likely at first come off as a Gothic mentor but eventually show her true colors as an exclusionist who thinks Priya's friends are "lame" and "pathetic" due to not being goths. A disgusted Priya storms off, cutting ties to her "mentor" in the process.
• Abby: Abby's counterpart is equally chaotic but unlike Abby, who is able to curb her antics enough to make sure no one gets hurt, the counterpart has absolutely no care for anyone else's well-being and just does what they want, regardless of the consequences. Abby would break ties with them when the antics she gets drawn into endanger or injure one or more of her friends and her "new friend" just laughs in the face of the chaotic fall out.
• Tyler: Tyler's Evil Counterpart would probably be the same kind of Jerk Jock Bully he appeared to be at the beginning of the film who gleefully uses his wealth to gain "friends" who do whatever he wants for payment and sneers at Tyler's "fall from grace" in befriending the girls.

The Evil Counterpart group could also have animal spirits

If Miriam, Priya, Abby, Tyler have animal spirits, perhaps their opposites could have them as well but instead of it being of a blessing it could be a curse or something else.

• Mei: Her counterpart could be a snow leopard, since they along with Martens are predators of Red Pandas. Plus, the blue and black color scheme fits to contrast the Red Panda's red and white. Plus, female Snow leopards are known to be good mothers but also leopards are solitary creatures, so it'll fit with Mei's Evil Counterpart in both ways.
• Miriam: Her counterpart could be a Wolf, because of the term Wolf in sheep's clothing, meaning looking sweet but are incredibly Rotten. Alternatively, the counterpart could be a Hell Hound, since they are servants of evil, while the lions are symbols of good .

The Incredibles will cross over.

• Perhaps in an animated series special, Mei and her family could be contacted by a secret government agency to help pay off their huge stadium debt, and Mei could be trained to become a hero for hire like The Avengers or The Incredibles where Mei is known as the "Panda Girl" among the underground superhero community and maybe the Parr family heard about Mei. (Since Incredibles is implied set around the 60's and if the Pixar Theory is true that all the films are connected, then perhaps this is the same world as The Incredibles and Mei will meet a grown-up Dash who would be in his 40's and he is the commissioner with a wife and kids (who might be ship teased with Mei), or it could be Bob himself as the commissioner of superheroes and "Panda Girl" is a big name among them. Edna Mode, now a Cool Old Lady, would of course gush over Mei's powers and their shared Asian heritage.

A sequel will focus on Mei becoming a big sister

• Coinciding with the first movie's theme of growing up, part of that can also be welcoming in new members of the family. While Mei's also learning more about the Red Panda transformation, (and possibly meeting other people with similar abilities in the process) she can also start to learn more things about siblinghood with her immediate family, simultaneously realizing that the Panda could very well be a make-or-break situation if a threat comes along, with her friends and family on the line.

Mei's cousin Leo will appear.

Mei's cousin Leo from earlier treatments of the story will be introduced in the sequel where he'll be the first known male member of the family line to gain a Red Panda form. The central conflict between him and Mei will be over Leo's reckless and irresponsible use of his panda form.

The antagonist/deuteragonist of the sequel/tv series will transform into a snow leopard

Making a choice for maximum animal jingoism, red pandas have two main predators, martens and snow leopards. While a marten shifter would also fit, snow leopards look more fierce and their colour scheme of white with black would contrast well with red panda red with white. Plus a leopard would make for more attractive merch to sell.

If this troper had to think of a backstory, I'd say that the relatives/descendants of the bandits that Sun Yee fought also wanted to harness their own animal shifter to counter her. However, since their main motive was revenge rather than protection, the gods declined their request. In the present day, one of their descendants does something to deserve that power, maybe risking their life to protect another, and it finally activates.

This troper envisioned the hypothetical snow leopard to be similar to Mei in age and asian background but counter her in several potential ways. Maybe she's an introvert to Mei's extrovert? Very few if any friends instead of Mei's group? Does she and her parent have a bad relation with their extended family, or even no extended family at all? Many potential angles to explore how a very different person tackles with a animal spirit and how Mei would interact with her.

In part of the sequel, Miriam, Priya, Abby, Tyler, and even Jin will get A Day in the Limelight after an evil Mad Scientist wants to kidnap Mei, and her other red panda relatives for an experiment.

• After seeing the red pandas on the news and what they look like before the transformation, the evil scientist orders his Mooks to bring them all to him.
• Mei, Ming, grandma Wu, and the aunties are minding their own business when a group of mysterious masked men and women wearing leather gear somehow sedates them before bringing them back to the evil scientist’s lab.
• The experiment is to hook each of them up to a device to make them transform with a remote control in order to use them to dominate Toronto and eventually the world for failing to not recognize him as a brilliant scientist.
• Miriam, Priya, Abby, Tyler, and Jin hear about the kidnapping and must go rescue them but are stopped by the evil scientist’s mooks.
• Miriam, Priya, Abby, Tyler, and Jin take out the mooks in combat before getting to the evil scientist.
• Jin will be the one to defeat the evil scientist with a Mega Ton Punch.
• The evil scientist and his mooks are hauled off to jail.
• Mei, Ming, grandma Wu, and the aunties are finally rescued.
• As a celebration, everybody parties at Mei’s house.

A sequel titled Turning Green with Contrasting Sequel Main Character more or less.

A kid discovers an ability to transform into a reptile such as crocodile. As a contrast to Turning Red:

• The kid is rather unremarkable in school, doing okay or above average in classes, and loves to go out partying and getting into mischief. Once the character unlock their ability to "turn green", they become a more confident, outstanding student but may have to work at getting accepted by classmates, though there's bound to be some students who find a were-reptile cool.
• When the kid wakes up transformed, instead of fear, they are elated and not afraid to show off, but still cautious about sharing their new form.
• Instead of trying to break free of parental control, the character starts to learn greater discipline to guide their life in a better direction without having to give up fun time.
• As a play on certain associations the color green has, rather than anger causing them to lose control of their alligator form, it's envy. The kid first transforms after feeling particularly envious for some reason and afterwards involuntarily changes whenever they feel jealous or greedy.
• The film can also be an aversion to Reptiles Are Abhorrent with an enthusiasm for reptiles, real or fictional, being one of the interests of someone in the film, and shout-outs to Disney reptile characters being visible throughout in the film.

A sequel with character (doesn't have to the main one necessarily) who turns into a giant raccoon as a nod to the trash-panda joke.

It helps the Raccoons and Red Pandas loosely resemble one another in real life, helping add some depth to this idea. This idea may follow up by featuring a culture where Raccoons are a key part of their lore and our Raccoon protagonist learns how Heart Is an Awesome Power.

A Contrasting Sequel Antagonist who is a jaded and angry young adult man who turns into a green minotaur and is a very clear-cut villain for Mei to fight against.

Also comes with the Parental Bonus of the rivalry between the red bear and the green bull used as the animals for the stock market.

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