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 in the franchise. At D23, Stanton said that the toys that have always been there for kids will face a challenge this time as they compete with electronics.
Disney CEO Bob Iger first confirmed in February 2023 that a sequel was in the works, along with new installments in the “Frozen” and “Zootopia” franchises. No further details were given at the time, only that it seemed like the new film would not be another spin-off like “Lightyear” starring Chris Evans, but a return to the core story surrounding 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 in hopes of reuniting the two for a possible sequel.
Although Allen had expressed reservations about a sequel, he said at the time that he had wondered “if four is too many. Is five too many?” He then added that the “writer who is working on it wrote one of the better movies and said, ‘If I couldn’t do that, I wouldn’t do it.’ It could be a very, very interesting way to bring the two together again.”
Toy Story 4 was released in 2019 to rave reviews and grossed over $1 billion at the box office worldwide. The film set a record for the biggest animated film opening at the time, grossing $244.5 million worldwide. Fans were initially worried that a Toy Story 4 would ruin the perfect send-off Pixar created for the characters in 2010’s Toy Story 3 (also grossing $1 billion in ticket sales and winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature). However, that wasn’t the case, as Toy Story 4 was just as popular, garnering both critical and box office acclaim.
Pixar’s “Toy Story 5” will be released in theaters on June 19, 2026.
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