Nathan Fillion’s Hit Fantasy Prequel Roars Back To Life On Streaming At The Perfect Time

Published Oct 5, 2026, 4:00 PM EDT Grant Hermanns is a TV News Editor, Interview Host and Reviewer for ScreenRant, having joined the team in early 2021. He got his start in the industry with Moviepilot, followed by working at ComingSoon.net. When not indulging in his love of film/TV, Grant is making his way through his gaming backlog and exploring the world of Dungeons & Dragons with friends. While Lanterns may be at an end, Nathan Fillion isn't letting his streaming dominance come to an end. Though having stayed consistently busy onscreen in both live-action and animated productions, Fillion has exploded in popularity in recent years, thanks in part to his ongoing ABC crime thriller The Rookie, which is gearing up to launch its second spinoff series, and turn as haughty Guy Gardner iteration of Green Lantern in James Gunn's DC Universe. Ahead of his return in the latter role in Gunn's Man of Tomorrow, one of the star's previous hits is roaring back to life on streaming. Hailing from the creative team of director Dan Scanlon and writers Dan Gerson and Robert L. Baird, Monsters University marked the long-awaited return of Pixar's 2001 supernatural comedy hit Monsters, Inc. after years of attempts to get a sequel off the ground. Serving as a prequel to the original, the film followed Billy Crystal's Mike and John Goodman's Sulley as they head to the titular college and, after initially being heated rivals, find a way to become best friends. Alongside Crystal, Goodman and Fillion, who starred as the president of the fraternity that aims to recruit Sulley, Monsters University featured a star-studded roster including the likes of Helen Mirren, Steve Buscemi, Charlie Day and Aubrey Plaza, among others. Though not at the same level of the first film's near-perfect 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the Pixar prequel did score generally positive reviews from critics and was a box office smash, grossing over $743 million worldwide. Monsters University Is Taking Over Hulu's Top Spots Now, just over 13 years after the film first hit theaters, Monsters University finds itself back as one of the biggest movies on streaming. At the time of writing, the movie is currently holding the No. 9 position on Hulu's Top 15 Movies chart, situated just ahead of this year's hit horror-comedy sequel Ready or Not 2: Here I Come at No. 10. The timing of Monsters University's streaming resurgence does make a fair amount of sense, given the month of October brings the Halloween season, and subsequently, viewers are looking for things to watch in honor of that. The rest of Hulu's chart offer further proof of this, as just ahead of the Pixar prequel is fellow Disney genre hits Halloweentown and Hocus Pocus 2 at No. 8 and No. 7, respectively, while the Dakota Fanning-led Coraline holds down the No. 4 position. The Monsters, Inc. Franchise Is About To Return In A Major Way Beyond just coinciding with the Halloween season, Monsters University's latest streaming wave comes at the perfect time in that Pixar is currently gearing up for a third chapter in the series. As revealed in a lengthy report regarding the studio's upcoming slate this past March, it was announced that Monsters, Inc. 3 is currently in development, with Goodman acknowledging the reports to ScreenRant shortly thereafter, though indicating he hadn't been contacted yet by the studio. Considering most Pixar movies spend three or four years in development and production before finally being released, it seems likely that further updates on the threequel won't come for some time. As such, in the meantime, fans of the series and Fillion's can at least relish seeing Monsters University's latest surge in popularity as they await to learn about Mike and Sulley's next scare-filled adventure. Release Date June 19, 2013 Runtime 104 minutes Director Dan Scanlon Cast Billy Crystal Mike (voice) This prequel to Monsters, Inc. takes viewers back to a time before James P. "Sully" Sullivan and Michael "Mike" Wazowski formed the most successful "scarer" team in Monsters, Inc. history. Writers Dan Scanlon, Daniel Gerson, Robert L. Baird Producers Andrew Stanton, John Lasseter, Kori Rae, Lee Unkrich Prequel(s) Monsters, Inc. Franchise(s) Disney Main Genre Animation Studio(s) Disney Distributor(s) Disney