What Are the New Emotions in “Inside Out 2”? All 4 Explained

Here’s everything to know about new characters Anxiety, Envy, Ennui and Embarrassment

Audiences have been waiting nine years for a sequel to Inside Out, the Disney Pixar film that introduced the world to 11-year-old Riley’s innermost feelings as she navigates a big move from Minnesota to San Francisco.

On June 14, Inside Out 2 is bringing Riley back as a 13-year-old — and all of the big feelings that being a teenager entails. This time, she’s got four more emotions at Headquarters: Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke), Envy (voiced by Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (voiced by Adèle Exarchopoulos) and Embarrassment (voiced by Paul Walter Hauser).

And because Riley is getting older, those more complicated emotions start taking over, and fast.

“Riley’s life requires more sophisticated emotions than all of you,” Anxiety says in the Inside Out 2 official trailer. When she does, Embarrassment scoops up the five original emotions — Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler), Sadness (voiced by Phyllis Smith), Fear (voiced by Tony Hale), Anger (voiced by Lewis Black) and Disgust (voiced by Liza Lapira) — in its arms so they can’t break free.

Now suppressed emotions, Joy and the rest of the original crew must find their way back to Riley's Headquarters where Anxiety has taken control.

Related: Meet the Voice Cast of Inside Out 2! All About the Actors Behind Every New and Returning Emotion

The sequel was originally slated to have nine additional new emotions, including Schadenfreude, Shame and Guilt. “My first pass, my first screening that we did ... Nine new emotions showed up,” director Kelsey Mann said at a press conference, according to Collider. “I really wanted Joy to feel overwhelmed by all of these new emotions that showed up [but] you couldn’t keep track. There were so many emotions, and they all canceled each other out because you couldn’t keep up with everybody. And my first note from the first screening was simplify.”

Later, Mann decided to trim more of the negative characters to amplify the comedy in the film. “It was not fun to watch,” he told The Wrap. “It was not fun. It was too heavy.”

The end result is what Poehler described to PEOPLE as "so good." She said of the filmmakers, “The stuff they did in this next film is so good. The movie's growing with all of us ... I love the research and the depth that they did where anxiety is a motivator. So at first, Joy is like, ‘I like you! Anxiety's fun!’ ”

From the baggage brought by Anxiety to the never-ending boredom of Ennui, here's the lowdown on the four new emotions in Inside Out 2.

Anxiety

From the moment Anxiety shows up in Riley’s head, she’s already making a big impression with the other emotions. “Hi, I’m Anxiety,” she says, holding up six suitcases (a lot of emotional baggage, anyone?). “Where can I put my stuff?”

The lesson in the original movie was that every emotion is important, even the negative ones, because they all form the person you are inside. Anxiety’s role is to think of what could go wrong and try to avoid it — but also adds a frenetic element, like she does in this Pixar short where she takes the happy music Joy is playing and makes it ... different.

“Look, we all have a job to do,” Anxiety explains to Joy in the trailer. “I plan for the future.” Part of that planning is helping Riley make new friends for high school.

Maya Hawke portrays the bright orange, Muppety-looking emotion who has a giant, cringing grin. “There’s something about this story and these characters that I think really brings fundamental truths about our experience to the surface,” she told Empire in 2024. “It’s so relatable, so emotional, so pure, that whether you want to or not, you use what you have and what you’ve been through.”

Envy

Envy might be tiny, but she definitely makes her presence known at Headquarters. “I’m Envy,” the greeny-blue emotion (played by Ayo Edebiri) says when introducing herself to Disgust. She then notices and reaches for the original emotion Disgust's sparkling bright green ‘do. “Whoa, look at your hair," she exclaims.

With her big, emotive eyes and her constant longing, Envy helps Riley identify what she wants and how she’s going to get it — which includes making friends. When another girl at school invites Riley to sit with her and her friends, Envy pops up, saying, “These girls are soooooo cool!”

Ennui

The epitome of teenage ambivalence and disaffection, Ennui — which is a listless, dissatisfied feeling — is a new emotion that comes with puberty. In designing the new characters, Mann said that he and the team consciously chose to “push the weirdness” with character designs and branch out more than they did with the original five, according to Polygon. Ennui, in particular, looks like a disaffected teenager, with her drooping stance, her perpetually downcast eyes and her constant frown.

Ennui is voiced by French actor Adèle Exarchopoulos. When Anxiety introduces her to the original emotions, they don’t know what the word means. Then the movie cuts to Ennui, whooshing out a long sigh as she lays on a couch, staring up into her phone. “It’s what you would call the boredom,” she says.

Poehler said of the film at the D23 expo in 2022, "There's a lot of very complicated feelings about who am I, where do I fit it? Sometimes your brain is not your friend. But then also, it's a time of real exploration, letting things go that don't work for you anymore, taking big swings and big chances. You're supposed to make a lot of mistakes. It's an adventurous time and it can be really treacherous."

Embarrassment

Embarrassment, played by Paul Walter Hauser, doesn’t say much, but he’s always lurking, ready to add his particular tinge to any given situation. When he first shows up in Headquarters, he’s too shy to say anything, but manages to extend a fist out to Joy to fist bump. But she goes high when he goes low, and the two have an extremely awkward moment of trying to figure out how to greet each other. Embarrassment is quiet the entire time. When they high-five, Joy shakes her hand and says, “You got a real sweaty palm there, buddy.” He says nothing, but pulls his hoodie tighter and curls himself into a little ball.

"Young people have a really hard time telling the world how they feel. Either they're dismissed or they don't have the language yet or they're afraid their feelings won't be what their parents want them to feel,” Poehler said at D23, adding of the power of the Inside Out films, "So to give young people a sense of agency is really nuts."

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