Toy Story 4 star Tom Hanks and producer Jonas Rivera hint the Disney-Pixar franchise could one day find new life despite the newest film being approached as the “final chapter.”
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“We sort of joked that we thought Toy Story 2 was the last one,” Rivera said during a press conference hosted at the Walt Disney World Resort’s Hollywood Studios and attended by ComicBook.com.
“When we finished that one we thought that was the end of the story. And how we approached [Toy Story 4]… with Woody as the protagonist, this was the final chapter. And as filmmakers, we feel satisfied that this is where you could end it.”
But after Toy Story 4, there’s now “an implied future to all these films,” Rivera continued. “And we sort of ‘never say never’ at Pixar. But as storytellers, we’re satisfied with this as closing the chapter.”
Hanks, who earlier called the latest film an emotional end to the series, added his final recording session made him realize Toy Story 4 was “the last moment of the current Toy Story.”
Quipped co-star Annie Potts, who returns as the long-missing Bo Peep, “I think you just said a lot of stuff you weren’t supposed to say.”
Both Hanks and co-star Tim Allen, who voices Buzz Lightyear, were overcome with emotion by a “tough” ending.
“The last few sessions we’re saying goodbye to Woody and Buzz and Bonnie’s room and Andy and everybody,” Hanks said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “And it was emotional.”
It might be Woody’s last rodeo, at least for some time: producer Mark Nielsen previously told press there are currently no plans for Toy Story 5, but Pixar’s “never say never” mantra is still in play.
“Every film we make, we treat it like it’s the first and the last film we’re ever going to make,” Nielsen said.
“So you force yourself to make it hold up. You don’t get in over your skis. Whether there’s another one? I don’t know. If there is, it’s tomorrow’s problem.”
Toy Story 4 opens June 21.
