Toy Story is Pixar’s flagship franchise, producing some of the studio’s biggest hits. It’s also spawned one of the studio’s rare box office failures. In 2022, Pixar made its post-pandemic return to theater with Lightyear, a Toy Story spinoff built around a semi-confusing “movie within a movie” setup (in Toy Story lore, Lightyear is the movie a young Andy saw that made him want a Buzz Lightyear action figure). While it was generally well-received (74% on Rotten Tomatoes), Lightyear bombed in theaters, grossing only $226.4 million worldwide against a $200 million budget. One would think that performance would discourage Pixar from pursuing other spinoffs, but there’s always the possibility for more.
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Speaking with Screen Rant to promote Toy Story 5, Pixar filmmaker Andrew Stanton (who has directed multiple movies for the studio, including Toy Story 5) addressed the possibility of more spinoffs. “We’d like to think we’ve done enough time that we can smell when something might really hold for not only the outside world, but for four years of making it,” he said. “So, we just talk all the time, and we say, ‘Maybe not now’ or ‘no’ many, many times. But when we can smell something, we keep digging there, but we still don’t push it forward until we know it’s ready.”
Will Pixar Ever Make Another Toy Story Spinoff?
Based on Stanton’s comments, he and his colleagues have the right approach when it comes to further Toy Story spinoffs. There’s no harm in bouncing ideas off of each other to see if something sticks, but they aren’t going to move forward with anything unless they’re confident that they have a story worth telling (which is Pixar’s mindset for just about all of their projects, honestly). It’s encouraging to hear that Pixar did not let the failure of Lightyear stop them from discussing other possibilities. Just because one spinoff didn’t work doesn’t mean the next idea will also be a bomb.
You can see what Pixar was going for with Lightyear, but that film was a miscalculation on the studio’s part. Pixar CCO Pete Docter admitted they did “a lot of soul-searching” after Lightyear flopped, realizing that it never truly connected with fans. Even as the marketing campaign progressed, viewers weren’t entirely sure what Lightyear was or how it related to the Toy Story movies. In stark contrast, Toy Story 5 is poised to be one of the biggest hits of the summer by essentially bringing the franchise back to basics. Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and the gang are facing yet another existential crisis as they deal with their kid’s shifting interests. Toy Story 5 has earned widespread acclaim for its heartfelt story and it should be well on its way to grossing $1 billion.
If Pixar opts to make another Toy Story spinoff, they would probably be better-served building something out of the mainline series as opposed to another abstract idea like Lightyear. Making a movie about the “real” Buzz Lightyear sounded cool on paper, but it didn’t resonate because audiences have become so attached to the toy versions of all the characters. Doing something like making the “real” Woody’s Roundup would probably deliver similar results to Lightyear. But if the spinoff was about one of the toys moviegoers know and love, it could have more success. The issue there is that by now, the core group of toys is a collective unit. Choosing one to headline a spinoff over all the others would be very difficult. It’s one thing to make Jessie the main character in an ensemble piece where she still has all of her friends to play off of. Singling out Rex or Mr. Potato Head for a solo movie could be a hard sell.
It doesn’t sound like there are any Toy Story spinoffs being prioritized at Pixar. The studio has a full slate that includes multiple sequels (Incredibles 3, Coco 2) and original titles (Ono Ghost Market, an untitled musical). That doesn’t mean Toy Story has no future. Stanton is open to making a Toy Story 6, exploring more of Bonnie’s childhood before a new kid enters the picture. But nothing will happen on that front unless Pixar uncovers the right story, which is the way it should be. Whether Toy Story 6 or another spinoff is next, fans can take solace in knowing Pixar’s flagship property is in great hands.
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