'Toy Story 4' Graphic Novel Anthology Announced by Dark Horse

Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 4 is still more than six months away from its release, but the beloved animated franchise is getting some new stories even earlier than that.

This week, Dark Horse announced that the next chapter of its partnership with Pixar will consist of a graphic novel anthology focused on the characters in the world of Toy Story. The anthology novel will serve as a companion to Toy Story 4 ahead of its release. Dark Horse is releasing its Toy Story 4 anthology on May 7, 2019, and it will retail for $10.99.

The book is going to be written by Haden Blackman, who Dark Horse says "brings fun, energy, and heart to this graphic novel that features the toys you know and love - and introduces some new toys, too!"

While there is no word as to what new characters could be in store, we might have some ideas based on early promotional material for Toy Story 4. The first two teasers revealed a character named Forky, as well as a duo of stuffed animals at the carnival voiced by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. Star Tim Allen also revealed in a recent interview that Keanu Reeves has a role in the film as well.

In addition to the return of the beloved franchise characters, Toy Story fans have come to expect a lot of heart and emotion in these adventures. Though nothing is known about the plot of this graphic novel, a gut-wrenching ending has already been promised for Toy Story 4.

Tom Hanks, who has played Woody in every Toy Story film to-date, has said that the final scenes of the movie were so emotional that he couldn't fast the crew when recording them.

"It was the first time that we were going to be recording the end of the movie, and Toy Story [4] is going to have an impactful ending," Hanks said. "The way you record Toy Story, you're in a room with the team that has created it. When I went in for my last day of recording, I wanted to have my back to them, because usually you're facing him so he can look right up and you can talk about it."

Toy Story 4 is set to hit theaters on June 21, 2019.