Toy Story 4 Director & Producers Reveal Where the Green Army Men Might Be

Toy Story 3 featured a surprising departure of three stalwarts to the franchise, as Sarge and the other Army Men ended up leaving before they were thrown in trash bags (though Woody tried to assuage those fears). The Army Men’s whereabouts are still unknown, so ComicBook.com spoke to Toy Story 4 director Josh Cooley and producers Jonas Rivera and Mark Nelson about what they are up to now and if they are still performing missions together.

“They split,” Rivera said, with Nelson adding “Which is hilarious. That joke killed me.” Cooley thinks the band is still together. “I like to think they’re out there doing missions. Somehow,” Cooley said.

“Busy somewhere,” Rivera said, with Nelson adding “Yeah, some big adventure. Same intensity. Everything they do.”

For Cooley, it was the Army Men that made an immediate impression on him. “That scene, that first scene in Toy Story when they’re doing a birthday party, that blew my mind,” Cooley said. “Kind of establishes Toy Story,” Rivera added.

“And then that one shot of them, across the ground and the camera moving, and you see it the ground, that’s when people talking about our film now they’re like, it looks so real. I remember saying that back then on that shot, them coming out the door running across,” Cooley said.

“That first scene I ever saw too, right? Joe Ranft our head of the story brought it in,” Nelson said. “I was working on James and the Giant Peach. He’s like, you guys got to see this. And he showed that scene and we’re like, what? We’ve got to see more of this.”

Rivera thinks its important to throw in surprising departures like this because it mimics how life in the real world goes. “It’s an important question in that I think it implies, it helps with our movie, in that it implies there is a bigger world, and not everyone makes it. And that’s okay. That was bold, in three, they have this moment of pause for her. And that was kind of dramatic. It shows like this isn’t all going to end well, right? You can’t keep this band together. We’ve definitely use that to catapult this film and forward,” Rivera said.

“But also just like real life, you meet people and then they leave your life. High school and college, all that. So I like treating that in the Toy Story movies,” Cooley said.

Hopefully, we’ll get to see the Army Men return at some point down the line, but whatever they’re doing we’re sure they are giving it 100%.

Toy Story 4 hits theaters on June 20th.