Pixar may be churning out new original movies like Elemental, Turning Red, and Soul these days, but it’s not afraid to return to the franchise.
One of Pixar’s most popular franchises is, of course, Toy His Story, which came out of the first movie starring Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, released in 1995.
But it’s been four years since he last saw the gang in full force on the big screen. So, does this mean the end of his Toy Story franchise, or can we expect another outing?
There will! Almost four years after the fourth film debuted, it was confirmed by Disney CEO Bob Iger in February 2023 that Toy Story 5 is officially in the works, along with sequels to two of the studio’s other popular franchises.
Iger said: “Today I’m so pleased to announce that we have sequels in the works from our animation studios to some of our most popular franchises, Toy Story, Frozen and Zootopia.”
It’s not yet known when Toy Story 5 will be released – however, we can look at previous releases to get a sense of when we might see it.
For instance, Toy Story 4 was initially announced in 2014, before then coming out in 2019. If the fifth film takes a similar time in production then we could expect it to release in cinemas in 2028. If so, prepare for a long wait.
However, the film certainly could move through its production at a faster rate and we’ll keep this page updated as soon as any more concrete information becomes available.
The news that Toy Story 5 is in the works has surprised many fans. Especially since the end of Toy Story 4 felt final. In fact, producer Marc Nielsen said at the time:
“We think of ‘Toy Story 3’ as the end of Woody’s time with Andy, and we think of this as the ending of Woody’s arc and Buzz and Woody’s story.”
In this film, Woody reunites with Bo Peep and decides to stay with her at the end of the film and she breaks up with the group when she leaves with Bonnie.
Nothing is currently known about the plot of Toy Story 5. However, according to Tim Allen’s Twitter post following Disney’s announcement, the film will reunite with Woody and Buzz, who parted ways at the end of the previous film.
Allen said: “We’ll see you again, Woody, you’re a sad, weird little man, and you have my sympathies. And to number 5! to infinity and beyond! ”
We would certainly expect that Tom Hanks will reprise his role as Woody for Toy Story 5, and as noted above, Tim Allen appears to have already confirmed on Twitter that he will be back as Buzz, after Chris Evans played a different version of the character in the spin-off film Lightyear.
We would also expect the majority of the cast from Toy Story 4 could return, including Andy’s original group of toys, Bonnie’s toys (including Forky) and some of the lost toys Woody met with Bo Peep, including Ducky, Bunny and Duke Caboom.
Two actors who sadly won’t be able to reprise their roles are Don Rickles and Estelle Harris, who played Mr and Mrs Potato Head. The former died in 2017, and appeared in the fourth film posthumously using archive recordings, while the latter died in 2022.
