Is Bo Peep Secretly the Villain of 'Toy Story 4'?

The official trailer for Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 4 finally arrived online Tuesday morning, bringing with it the first footage of Bo Peep's return to the franchise. She's been absent since 1999's Toy Story 2, but Bo is back in a big way this time around, as the trailer makes it clear she's central to the new film's plot. The stage is set for Bo to be a guiding light to the wild world outside of a toy box for Woody, having been fending for herself in a dangerous antique shop for quite a while. However, once you watch the trailer a couple of times, an alternate tale becomes clearer and clearer.

It seems as if Bo Peep is potentially being set up as a villain in Toy Story 4, as her new role basically follows the same blueprint as the villains from the last two Toy Story films. Much like Stinky Pete and Lotso, Bo Peep could follow the classic ally-turned-antagonist plot that Toy Story fans are all too familiar with.

Think about it for a second. Bo Peep has found a new lifestyle, first on the road, and then in the antique shop near the carnival. In the years since arriving there, she has realized that the best thing for her to do is stay there where she can help other old and lost toys, or the carnival where toys can be an object of affection for thousands of kids. There's even a point in the trailer where Bo tells Woody that he should stay with her and adopt the same philosophy, and it's clear that he's at least interested in what she has to offer.

This storyline is eerily similar to the villains in both Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3. Back in 1999, Stinky Pete thought that toys needed to be preserved as they got older, not played with by small children. This is a fine sentiment, but he took it too far, sabotaging Woody's plans in order to service his own ideas. Bo Peep's new story is even more reminiscent of Lotso, who wanted the toys to stay in a pre-school so they would no longer be abandoned by children who grew up, as he once was.

Aside from Sid in the first Toy Story, who is simply a destructive sociopath, every villain the franchise has followed the same general archetype. Hopefully things will change in the actual movie and the franchise will put a spin on its classic villain tropes, but that remains to me seen.

Do you think Bo Peep will be the villain of Toy Story 4? Let us know in the comments!

Toy Story 4 is set to hit theaters on June 21st.