'Cars 3' Poster: Lightning McQueen Enters the Upside Down (Exclusive)

As the first teaser trailer implied, Cars — until now Disney-Pixar’s most light-hearted franchise — is speeding in a decidedly darker direction with the upcoming threequel. The preview showed our red- and yellow-hued hero Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) flipping through the air in slow motion on his way to what will no doubt be a thunderous crash.

That image, paired with the tagline “From This Moment, Everything Will Change,” is captured on Cars 3‘s first official poster, which you can see exclusively below:

Disney Animation chief John Lasseter told Entertainment Weekly in June that Cars 3 will feature a “very emotional story” that finds McQueen remembering his late mentor Doc Hudson (Paul Newman), whose own championship racing career was untracked by a crippling accident. Fan favorite Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) and McQueen’s main squeeze Sally (Bonnie Hunt) are returning, while the film will also introduce new characters named Cruz Ramirez and Jackson Storm, though casting on those voice roles has yet to be announced.

Cars 3 marks the directorial debut of Brian Fee, who came up the Pixar ranks as a storyboard artist on the first two Cars adventures as well as studio favorites Ratatouille and WALL-E. The film is scheduled for release on June 16, 2017.