‘Toy Story 5’ Sets Andrew Stanton as Director and Writer, Teases Toys vs. Tech
To infinity and beyond!
Woody and Buzz will be back for Disney Pixar’s “Toy Story 5.”
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Andrew Stanton will direct the next installment of the franchise. Speaking at D23, Stanton said this time around, the toys who have always been there for the kids will find their job cut out for them when they go head to head with electronics.
Disney CEO Bob Iger first confirmed that a sequel was in the works back in February 2023, along with new installments in the “Frozen” and “Zootopia” franchises. No further details were provided at the time, only that it seemed like the new film would not be another spinoff like the Chris Evans-starring “Lightyear,” but a return to the core story centered on Woody and Buzz.
A few months after Iger’s announcement, Tim Allen appeared on “The Tonight Show” and confirmed that Disney had contacted him and Hanks, hoping to reunite the pair for the potential sequel.
Though Allen had expressed concerns over making a sequel, at the time saying he “[wondered] if four was too many. Is five going to be too much?” he then added that the “writer that’s doing it wrote one of the better ones and said, ‘If I didn’t get this right, I wouldn’t do it.’ It could be a very, very interesting way to reunite it.”
“Toy Story 4” opened in theaters in 2019 to rave reviews and over $1 billion at the worldwide box office. The film set a record at the time for the biggest animated film launch, with a global opening of $244.5 million. Fans were initially concerned that a “Toy Story 4” might ruin the perfect sendoff that Pixar created for the characters in 2010’s “Toy Story 3” (also with $1 billion in ticket sales and the Oscar win for animated feature), but that turned out not to be the case as “Toy Story 4” was equally beloved—garnering critical and commercial acclaim.
Pixar’s “Toy Story 5” will be released in theaters on June 19, 2026.
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