‘Toy Story 5’ Announced

Heidi Wilhelm

I don’t know about anyone else, but I was most definitely not expecting an announcement of a new Toy Story movie! And yet here we are, with Toy Story 5 in in the works! Yeeeeehaw!

The news was shared by Disney CEO Bob Iger in the shareholders’ webinar on February 8, when he said that sequels for Toy Story, Frozen, and Zootopia were currently in development. Although no projected release date was given, it’s possible it could be meant for Pixar’s June 2025 slot, which is listed as an unnamed film. There are also two other as-of-yet-unannounced Pixar movies set for release in March and June of 2026. Lightyear was announced in December 2020 for a June 2022 release, as comparison, so 2025 would make sense, but I’m sure production timelines vary film by film.

Tim Allen further confirmed the announcement on his social media accounts:

Of course I’m most happy to hear directly from Tim Allen, which hints that Buzz will be in the new movie. But “see ya soon Woody” raises a lot of questions, considering Woody left his friends to go with Bo at the end of Toy Story 4. Is Allen just assuming Woody will be back? Do the actors already know the general plot? Has he talked with Tom Hanks, since they’re buddies in real life? These are the things that will keep me guessing for a while, along with who might be directing.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how I want to approach things with Toy Story 5, as far as discussing and reporting on everything. I’m not gonna rehash how I feel about social media – I’ve been pretty clear about that in recent years, and I don’t think I could express it any better than I already did in my post back before Lightyear was released. No, I don’t like the drama – it sends my anxiety through the roof and sucks the joy out of everything. But, honestly, I do love the hunt. All the searching for news in the years and months leading up to a new Toy Story film is a good focus for me. The anticipation is half the fun! And I relish the moments when I find something exciting and rush to share it with my friends – or post it on here, if I feel so inclined.

Not only is this blog a vehicle to share my finds with others, it serves as a good archive for my own reference, too. I like having a place to go back to and find links and images and such. It also helps to get my thoughts out in writing sometimes, more so than I can do in an Instagram post. So for those reasons, I do want to keep this blog going. I probably won’t be quite as active as I was in the lead-up to Toy Story 4 – on here or on social media – but I will be around, while guarding myself as much as possible from all the nastiness online.

I’ve already been asked multiple times what I think Toy Story 5 will be about, and what I think about it in general. The answer to both is, I don’t know, because it’s simply far too soon, and we know far too little. I’ve expressed before that my relationship with Toy Story 4 is very complicated, along with the Forky Asks a Question and Pixar Popcorn shorts. Am I worried? Of course I am, that’s typical for me whenever there’s something new; I have a lot of emotional investment in this series. But I love these characters so much, and I have to be hopeful, even cautiously so.

Just last week, I was in Toy Story Land at Disney World, telling my husband how depressing it was that there was nothing new with Toy Story anymore, that it was becoming old news, and feeling like it was being forgotten. And look where we are now! So I’m totally willing to take this crazy ride again, and see what happens.

Jessie image © Disney/Pixar, edited by me.