Pixar Director to Fans: Your Toy Story Trilogy Is Safe — Toy Story 5 Is Optional

Pixar is pulling the string again. Toy Story 5 is officially happening, landing June 19, 2026 — which is 16 years after Toy Story 3 closed the book on the Andy era back in 2010, and seven years after Toy Story 4 in 2019 brought the gang back together just long enough for Woody to choose a very different life with Bo Peep.

Wait, Woody is back with the gang now?

Yep. The first trailer shows Woody reunited with his old pals, which has people (fairly) asking how the cowboy boomeranged back after choosing the lost-toy life with Bo. Pixar clearly wants to play with the timeline and the characters instead of locking anything in amber — and one of the franchise’s key creative voices is very up front about that.

"So 3 was the end... of the Andy years. Nobody's being robbed of their trilogy. They can have that and never watch another if they don't want to. But I've always loved how this world allows us to embrace time and change. There's no promise that it stays in amber."

— Andrew Stanton, to Empire

The setup this time

The toys are dealing with a new kind of playtime problem: Lilypad, a high-tech, frog-shaped smart tablet voiced by Greta Lee. Think of it as the kind of sleek gadget that makes Buzz, Woody, Jessie, and the rest feel like analog toys in a touchscreen world. The gist is that Lilypad turns everyday play into a challenge, and the gang has to figure out how to go head to head with that.

Buzz, Jessie, and... a lot more Buzz

Tim Allen has been teasing where this is all headed. According to him, Jessie finally takes the spotlight in a big way, and Woody and Buzz reunite. Also, brace yourself for a twist that sounds delightfully chaotic if they pull it off:

"It's such a great story. I can only tell a little bit of it. It's a Jessie story, Tom [Hanks] and I have to reunite, and there's just the funniest thing, because there's a whole bunch of Buzzes involved. And there's a reason why there's a whole bunch of me, so there's 100 of me in a separate story, and I'm having so much fun."

— Tim Allen

Quick refresher on where we left things

• Toy Story 3 (2010): Andy gives his toys to Bonnie and heads to college — emotional curtain call on the Andy years.
• Toy Story 4 (2019): Woody chooses to live as a lost toy with Bo Peep, separating from the gang.
• Toy Story 5 trailer: Woody is back with the group, which raises continuity questions the movie will need to answer.
• New threat: Lilypad, a frog-shaped smart tablet voiced by Greta Lee, makes the toys’ jobs way harder.
• Focus: Jessie steps into the center of the story, per Tim Allen.
• The twist: Multiple Buzz Lightyears — Allen teases about 100 Buzzes in a connected storyline, with a reason behind the duplicates.
• Release date: June 19, 2026.

The vibe

Between a tech-savvy antagonist, a Jessie-led emotional core, and the promise of many, many Buzzes, this feels like Pixar swinging for big comedy and bigger feelings while deliberately messing with where we thought these characters ended up. If they stick the landing — and explain how Woody found his way home — we might be in for another sneaky gut-punch of a Toy Story chapter.