Disney has announced a return to the world of Woody and Buzz in Toy Story 5.
Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed there would be a new Toy Story sequel coming from Pixar during the 2023 year-end earnings call. It will be the sixth feature-length Toy Story film following 2022’s Lightyear and 2019’s Toy Story 4.
The Pixar series, which announced the arrival of the animation studio back in 1995, has grossed more than $3.3bn so far, and Toy Story 5 will hope to follow in the footsteps of its predecessors to become another box office hit for Disney.
Read more: Why isn’t Tim Allen in Lightyear?
Here’s everything we know about Toy Story 5 so far.
Toy Story 5 potential release date
An official release date for Toy Story 5 has not been announced so far and its status is ‘in development’ at Pixar.
Judging by the release cycle of the previous films, we might be waiting up to four or five years for Toy Story 5 placing its release window at some time in 2027-2028. However Pixar currently has three untitled movies on its slate dated for June 2025, March 2026, and June 2026: could June 2026 be the release date of Toy Story 5?
Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4 enjoyed summer release dates, so we expect Toy Story 5 to follow suit.
Toy Story 5 cast
There wouldn’t be Toy Story without the powerhouse voice performances of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen as Woody and Buzz Lightyear — so will they return for Toy Story 5?
Read more: Tom Hanks’ greatest moments
Following the announcement of Toy Story 5, the Home Improvement star — who didn’t appear in the Lightyear spinoff — confirmed he would be back as Buzz alongside Woody tweeting: “See ya soon Woody… off we go to a number 5! To infinity and beyond!”
Talking to ET in 2019 about the prospect of Toy Story 5, Allen expressed an interest in returning as Buzz Lightyear for a fifth film.
“Once you’ve gotten to four, you’ve passed that trilogy [point]so I don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t do it, certainly,” Allen said. “If you ask me, I’d say do five.”
Hanks seemed less sure in 2019, telling Ellen DeGeneres: “We’re saying goodbye to Woody and Buzz and Bonnie’s room and Andy and everybody,” before adding: “Is it over? I don’t know. It’ll live forever.”
Hopefully this means we’ll also see the return of Tony Hale as Forky, Annie Potts as Bo Peep, Joan Cusack as Jessie, Wallace Shawn as Rex, John Ratzenberger as Hamm, and Blake Clark as Slinky Dog.
One cast member who sadly won’t return is Don Rickles as Mr Potato Head as the actor died in 2017.
Toy Story 5 plots
While we don’t know the details of Toy Story 5’s plot yet, it’s clear that Woody and Buzz will need to reunite once again for another adventure.
The ending of Toy Story 4 was an emotional one as it saw Woody and Bo Peep leave Bonnie’s toys to become ‘lost toys’ with Giggle McDimples, Duke Caboom, Bunny and Ducky at the fair ground.
They decide to stay behind with the traveling carnival as Bonnie no longer needs Woody. It was an emotional scene for the cast to record as it seemed to mark the end of the series, with Hanks saying he had to turn around from the crew in the recording booth in case it made him cry.
Read more: Pixar in-jokes that will blow your mind
The rest of Bonnie’s toys — Buzz, Jessie, Forky, Bullseye, Slinky, Rex, the Potato Heads, Trixie, Dolly, and Buttercup — returned to her family’s RV to continue being the young girl’s playthings while she still needed them.
We can’t wait to find out how that happened.
Who made Toy Story 5?
Josh Cooley was the director of Toy Story 4, taking over the reins from John Lasseter — the director on the first three films — who left Pixar in 2017 following allegations of misconduct at the Californian animation studio.
Cooley has since moved on from Pixar to direct an animated Transformers film for Paramount which is due for release in 2024 which likely rules him out of directing Toy Story 5.
However, with a wealth of talent at Pixar, expect someone at the studio to be handed the reins for the fifth film.
Toy Story 5 is currently in development at Pixar.
Watch: Tom Hanks on how Toy Story changed his life
