Toy Story 5 Star Gives Fans Hope for New Pixar Sequel, “It’s Very, Very Clever”

Pixar’s iconic Toy Story film franchise is getting a fifth movie in 2026, and fans have spent the last year or so wondering exactly how that’s going to work. Many believe that Toy Story 3 offered the perfect ending to the saga of Buzz and Woody, when they moved on from Andy and went to live with Bonnie. Then Toy Story 4 proved to be another great adventure, concluding with Buzz and Woody actually going their separate ways. How is Toy Story 5 going to put the two core characters back together without it seeming like a forced cash-grab.

We don’t have an answer for that yet, but franchise star Tim Allen continues to try and bring peace to the doubters every time he talks about Toy Story 5. This past week, Allen appeared in front of the press at Disney’s Upfront presentation, and he addressed the issue of reuniting Buzz and Woody for this next Toy Story installment.

In addition to reiterating the fact that Jessie is a major focal point of this film, Allen explained that Toy Story 5 has a “very, very clever” reason for not only coming back after the ending of Toy Story 4, but also for bringing the two main characters back together.

“I just finished another five hour session before I flew in for this. So, it’s a story about Jessie. It’s very, very clever,” Allen said. “I was reticent, and some detractors asked if we needed another one after the whole Toy Story 4 ‘to infinity and beyond’ thing with Buzz and Woody saying goodbye to each other which tore us up, but we’re back for a good reason now, and it is very, very clever.”

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Almost everything we know about Toy Story 5 at this point has come from Tim Allen, who has been offering little nuggets of information for the last few months. It was during an appearance on Good Morning America that Allen first hinted that Toy Story 5 would be putting a big emphasis on Jessie, the character voiced by Joan Cusack who first appeared in Toy Story 2.

“I’ve already begun, I’m in the third act now. It’s remarkable what they’ve done,” Allen said back in January. “There’s a lot of real intrigue with Buzz. Jessie’s got a big trouble, she needs help, so it’s a really cool thing.”

Toy Story 5 is set to hit theaters on June 19, 2026, seven years after the theatrical release of Toy Story 4 and more than three decades after the original film launched Pixar’s theatrical work in 1995. Andrew Stanton, the filmmaker behind Wall-E and Finding Nemo, is stepping in as the writer and director of Toy Story 5, having been involved as a writer in all four of the previous installments.

In addition to the returns of Allen, Cusack, and Tom Hanks, Toy Story 5 will also feature a voice performance from Ernie Hudson, who is replacing the late Carl Weathers as the voice of Combat Carl.