Toy Story 5 Confirms Major Characters

Though Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) have been mainstays in the Toy Story franchise since its inception, there was a lingering question as to whether they’d return in the property’s next film. According to Allen, however, fans need not worry—both he and Hanks will be returning for the film. In an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon Tuesday, Allen confirmed Disney’s approached the duo to reprise their iconic roles.

“Bob Iger, head of Disney, said it was on. He actually said that it was going to happen,” Allen told the late-night host. “They have reached out to Tom and I to reprise the roles. They’re not saying anything about it.”

He added, “You wonder if four was too many. Is five going to be too much? According to the scuttlebutt, the writer that’s doing it wrote one of the better ones and he said, ‘If I didn’t get this right, I wouldn’t do it.’ So, it could be a very, very interesting way to reunite it.”

The film has been one of Disney’s most secretive projects, with no filmmakers officially attached to the project as of yet. Still, Pixar executive Pete Docter says the film will surprise those who tune in.

“The thing we’ve been really trying to do, and this has been the case for a while, is we’ve been looking at them a little bit like, okay, we’re not planning for the future. When we made the first Toy Story, we had no idea there would be a Toy Story 2,” Docter said of the first full-length computer-animated film that earned nearly $375 million at the global box office nearly 30 years ago. “We’re just trying to make this movie. But that in making the movie, it takes you places, unexpected places, which is what I love about the creative process. If I knew exactly what I was doing when I started making a movie, there’d kind of be no point in making it. I discover so much along the way.” 

Disney has yet to reveal when Toy Story 5 will hit theaters. The first four films in the franchise are now streaming on Disney+.