Toy Story 5 opens in theaters today, June 19, and somewhere out there, a millennial parent is watching it next to a child who has no memory of a world without Woody and Buzz. Just as that parent once sat beside their own parent, wide-eyed at a cinema screen in 1995, watching a cowboy doll panic about being replaced. That’s the miracle of the Toy Story franchise. It keeps finding new people to break the hearts of, one generation at a time. Pixar has now made five of these movies over 31 years, and the conversation about whether there will be a sixth one started before the credits on the fifth even finished rolling.
It’s not surprising. The Toy Story franchise has declared itself finished before. After the third movie… definitely after the fourth… and yet here we are. Andrew Stanton, who co-directs Toy Story 5 alongside Kenna Harris, has already suggested the story has enough material for two more installments, and the ending of Toy Story 5 leaves threads open that feel too purposeful to abandon. Disney and Pixar haven’t confirmed anything yet. But the toys, as always, are proving very difficult to put away. Here’s everything we know about Toy Story 6.
Is ‘Toy Story’ 6 Confirmed?
At the time of writing, Toy Story 6 has not been officially greenlit by Disney or Pixar. What does exist, however, is a creative framework and a director who has clearly thought about where the story goes next. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in April, Andrew Stanton revealed that with just two months of brainstorming, he could see material for two additional Toy Story movies.
Stanton has also been candid about the franchise’s habit of surviving its own endings. He told ScreenRant that Pixar has always approached each installment with the understanding that it could be the last, while quietly leaving the door open.
“It’s like a series that doesn’t know it’s going to get picked up for the next season. We’d always end it like it could end here, but we’ve passed the badge on from Woody to Jessie at the end of 4, just in case it keeps going. So it’s always been that kind of mindset.”
When pressed on whether Toy Story 5 marks the finale, his answer was an unambiguous “You can never say never.” Even the financial case is straightforward. The Toy Story franchise has generated $16 billion in revenue for Disney over three decades, and if the fifth movie clears $1 billion worldwide, as Toy Story 3 and 4 both did before it, Disney will have every commercial reason to keep the story going.
The Cast of ‘Toy Story 6’
No cast has been confirmed for Toy Story 6, but the lineup from the fifth movie gives a clear picture of who would return. Tom Hanks reprises Woody, Tim Allen returns as Buzz Lightyear, and Joan Cusack leads as Jessie alongside Greta Lee, who voices Lilypad, the self-aware tablet at the center of the movie’s conflict. The broader ensemble includes Annie Potts as Bo Peep, Kristen Schaal as Trixie, Tony Hale, Craig Robinson, Conan O’Brien, Keanu Reeves, Bad Bunny, and Ernie Hudson, with Taylor Swift contributing an original song, “I Knew It, I Knew You,” to Toy Story 5’s soundtrack alongside Randy Newman’s score.
Stanton noted in his Entertainment Weekly interview that any future movies would depend partly on the willingness of the cast to return, and given that Hanks and Allen both came back for the fifth after years of insisting the fourth was the last, that willingness appears resilient. Stanton himself suggested he expects to remain involved with the franchise in at least an advisory capacity, saying he can see himself doing this until he’s “in a rocking chair somewhere.” Whether he directs Toy Story is less certain, as he’s suggested a creative handover as the natural next step.
What Could ‘Toy Story 6’ Be About?
Since Pixar hasn’t officially confirmed a sixth movie, there’s no plot to report. However, Toy Story 5 plants several seeds that feel too deliberate to go unwatered. The movie’s emotional climax sees Jessie reunited with Emily, her original owner from Toy Story 2, who is now an adult with a daughter of her own. Studios don’t spend that kind of emotional real estate on a callback that means nothing and goes nowhere. If Toy Story 6 happens, that thread certainly leads somewhere.
Stanton has also sketched out the franchise’s broader trajectory. On the red carpet at the Toy Story 5 premiere in early June 2026, he described the original trilogy as the “Andy years” and teased that a potential Bonnie trilogy could follow the same structural logic, with the movies tracking her journey through childhood and eventually to the moment she passes the toys on, just as Andy did. He has also floated the possibility of the story moving beyond Bonnie entirely, following the toys to new children and new households as the franchise evolves.
A Buzz-centric story is the other obvious direction. He remains one of the franchise’s most iconic characters, and while Lightyear took an ill-fated detour into his mythology, a proper Toy Story movie built around his emotional arc, complete with leadership, purpose, and identity without Woody, is the kind of ground the series has never really covered.
Everything Else We Know About ‘Toy Story 6’
Beyond the creative speculation, a few concrete details are worth tracking. The Toy Story franchise has generated $16 billion in revenue for Disney since 1995, which means any conversation about continuation runs through the boardroom as much as the story room. Toy Story 5’s opening weekend tracking puts it on pace for the all-time top three animated debuts domestically, and if that momentum carries into its full theatrical run, Disney’s decision becomes considerably easier to make.
Stanton has confirmed that Pixar has already brainstormed enough material for two additional movies beyond the fifth, which suggests the creative infrastructure is already in place. What’s missing is the official green light, and that will likely follow from the box office results of Toy Story 5 over the coming weeks. The toys have escaped the toy box before. Don’t bet against them doing it again.
- Release Date
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June 19, 2026
- Runtime
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102 Minutes
- Producers
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Lindsey Collins, Jessica Choi
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
