Toy Story 5 Teaser Reveals Buzz and Woody’s Most Personal Villain Yet

Pixar just dropped the first tease for Toy Story 5, and the villain is not a collector or a cuddly dictator this time. It is a tablet. Yep. The gang is back together to face a very modern threat called Lilypad, a high-tech smart device that looks way more dangerous because it is exactly what has been stealing kids attention in real life.

The setup

The teaser pulls Woody, Buzz, and the usual crew into a new crisis: what happens to toys when a sleek screen does everything a kid wants? It is a clean, timely hook. And yes, the premise echoes the original Toy Story in a big way — new thing arrives, old favorites feel obsolete. But there is a twist in the emotional framing this time.

This is not a beat-for-beat repeat of Toy Story 1

Back in the first movie, Woody freaked out because Buzz threatened his status. That was jealousy. What Toy Story 5 is poking at feels closer to anxiety and uncertainty — a fear of the unknown. Which makes sense. Tablets and phones are basically babysitters now for a lot of families, often with kids left to roam those screens on their own. There is plenty for Pixar to chew on here that is bigger than a simple turf war between toys.

And Pixar has a habit of going deeper than the logline. Inside Out walked through messy teenage emotions; Soul asked what a life is even for. If they aim that lens at screens and childhood, this could land as more than just another nostalgia lap.

The Woody problem (and why it matters)

I get why a Toy Story 5 announcement raises eyebrows. People already grumbled about Toy Story 4 because Toy Story 3 felt like a perfect goodbye. But to be fair, 4 did have a point: it pushed Woody beyond being Andy’s loyal sheriff and leaned into what he has quietly done across the series — guiding lost toys toward purpose. He helped Buzz find his footing in the first movie, helped Jessie in the second, and in the fourth he poured himself into Forky’s existential crisis before choosing to stay with Bo Peep, essentially committing to helping strays full-time.

That ending worked. It was a clean, earned farewell. So if Woody is back in the mix now, Toy Story 5 needs a strong, story-first reason — not just because the gang is popular. The Lilypad angle is smart; here’s hoping it does not undercut Woody’s last chapter.

How the franchise has performed (receipts time)

• Toy Story: IMDb 8.3, Rotten Tomatoes 100% Tomatometer / 92% Audience
• Toy Story 2: IMDb 7.9, Rotten Tomatoes 100% Tomatometer / 87% Audience
• Toy Story 3: IMDb 8.3, Rotten Tomatoes 98% Tomatometer / 90% Audience
• Toy Story 4: IMDb 7.6, Rotten Tomatoes 96% Tomatometer / 94% Audience

The takeaway

Making the bad guy a tablet is bold and a little on-the-nose, but it is also exactly the kind of real-world wrinkle this series can use to say something timely. If the movie sticks to fear-of-the-future rather than toy-versus-new-toy jealousy, there is room for a fresh angle and a proper reason to bring Woody back.

Toy Story 5 hits theaters on June 19, 2026. Thoughts? Hopes? Fears? Drop them below — I’m curious where you land on Woody’s return and the whole Lilypad threat.