“Combat Carl finds a way” is the motto of the camo-clad action figure who was voiced by legendary action star Carl Weathers (the Rocky movies, Predator, The Mandalorian) in Toy Story of Terror! and Toy Story 4. Following the actor’s death at age 76 in February 2024, Disney and Pixar have found a way to keep Combat Carl in action: Ghostbusters franchise vet Ernie Hudson is taking over Weathers’ role as the G.I. Joe-inspired action figure in the upcoming Toy Story 5. Deadline first reported the news.
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Combat Carl action figures first appeared as the ill-fated generic soldier toys blown up by Sid in 1995’s original Toy Story. Weathers first voiced Combat Carl in the 2013 television special Toy Story of Terror!, which teamed the action-hero action figure with cowgirl doll Jessie (Joan Cusack) as toys started to go missing one-by-one at a roadside motel.
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The ABC special reimagined Combat Carl to resemble Weathers’ Colonel Al Dillon from 1987’s Predator, and in a nod to Weathers’ Happy Gilmore character “Chubbs” Peterson, Combat Carl had his right hand eaten by a reptile (an iguana rather than an alligator).
Weathers had a smaller role in 2019’s Toy Story 4, where the action figure (and versions dressed for colder and warmer climates) appeared as part of Bo Peep’s (Annie Potts) toy crew.
Besides his role as Winston Zeddemore in four Ghostbusters movies between 1984 and 2024, Hudson has voiced pit bull terrier Pedro in Disney’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua movies, Lucius Fox in the animated movie Batman: Bad Blood, DC superhero Cyborg in The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, minor characters in Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series, Special Agent Bill Fowler in Transformers: Prime, Robbie Robertson in 2017’s Spider-Man animated series, the gangster Grini Millegi in Star Wars: The Bad Batch, and Santa in the animated Legends of Tomorrow special Beebo Saves Christmas.
Hudson is the latest to join a cast that includes Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear, and Joan Cusack as Jessie.
Allen recently revealed that Jessie plays a big role in Toy Story 5, which sees Bonnie’s toys — including the reunited Woody and Buzz, Jessie, her horse Bullseye, Rex (Wallace Shawn), Hamm (John Ratzenberger), Slinky Dog (Blake Clark, who replaced the late Jim Varney), and Forky (Tony Hale) — contending with technology and a legion of “rogue commemorative Buzz Lightyear action figures stuck in toy mode.” Sounds like a mission for Combat Carl.
Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story 5 will be unboxed in theaters on June 19, 2026.
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Image courtesy of Peacock
