Toy Story continues with Toy Story 5, but some potential plots can finally end the franchise. Toy Story premiered in 1995, where kids fell in love with the friendship between Andy and Woody, amplified by Randy Newman’s “You’ve Got A Friend In Me.” Four years later, the toys returned for Toy Story 2, which offered a backstory on Woody’s origin. By Toy Story 3, Andy was ready for college, and when he gave his toys away, including Woody, to a young girl named Bonnie, it seemed like the end of an era.
However, Disney wasn’t done with the popular franchise and unexpectedly announced Toy Story 4, which premiered in 2019. The film concluded with Woody choosing to leave his friends behind and run free with his true love Bo Peep. This seemed like the perfect way to say goodbye to the franchise, even though Toy Story 3 initially seemed like the perfect ending. Now that Toy Story 5 is definitely happening, Disney will have to come up with another satisfying way to close out the franchise. It’d be for the best if they end it for real this time. Here are a few endings Toy Story 5 can go with.
6 Toys Return To Andy For His Kids
It would be a full circle moment for Toy Story 5 if the toys returned to their former owner Andy. When fans first met Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and the others, they lived with six-year-old Andy. Toy Story 3 is arguably the most heartbreaking of the franchise as Andy gives away his toys and is even hesitant to give Woody to Bonnie before deciding Andy deserves an owner who’s young enough to still play with him.
Andy would be around 33 years old in the present day and might even be married with his own children by now. The perfect way to end the Toy Story franchise would be for the toys to reunite with Andy, becoming his kids’ toys. This would also be the perfect ending for Woody, as Andy has always been his favorite owner.
5 Toys Free Themselves Like Woody Did In Toy Story 4
In Toy Story 4, Woody finally reunites with Bo Peep, who has become a lost toy with no owner. At the end of the film, Buzz Lightyear assures him that Bonnie will be okay if he doesn’t want to go back to being her toy. He decides to leave his friends behind and go off with Bo Peep, living freely in the world.
It seemed like the perfect ending, aside from Toy Story 3‘s already perfect ending. However, with Toy Story 5 in the works, the real perfect ending could be for the other toys to become free as well. Finally freeing the toys, allowing them to be on their own and go anywhere they want to, would be a great conclusion to the franchise.
4 Toys Go Back To Their Origins
The Toy Story franchise has briefly explored Woody and Buzz Lightyear’s origin stories, but for Toy Story 5 to be the final film, a look back at where all the toys came from could connect to how they got to where they are today, leaving little else for the franchise to explore. The origin story could also dive into the toys’ previous owners. In Toy Story 2, Andy’s mom mentions that Woody is an old family toy, suggesting he belonged to someone before Andy.
The franchise never elaborates, but Toy Story 5 could dive into the history of Woody in Andy’s family and before. This could also give more reasons as to why Woody is so attached to Andy. If he wasn’t treated great by some of his other owners, he would have a special bond with Andy, who loved him from the start. Other toys like a slinky dog and Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head could also get origin stories since their plots have been minimal in the more recent Toy Story films.
3 The Toys Get Destroyed
Toy Story 5 could go with a much darker ending that would reference the danger the toys faced in the original Toy Story, which would also end the franchise on a full circle. Sid enjoyed mutilating his toys and rearranging them, like putting doll legs on his car or turning a baby doll’s head into a mechanical spider.
The announcement of Toy Story 5 proves no matter how satisfying an ending is and how much it seems like there’s no other story to tell Disney and Pixar will come up with something in order to keep the franchise going. Destroying the toys might be the only way to make another sequel impossible. It would be dark, but it would ensure no more Toy Story films could be made unless a new group of toys were introduced.
2 Someone Finds Out The Toys Can Talk
When a human comes around, all the toys in Toy Story freeze. This is one of the rules of being a toy. While the franchise never explains why, it’s assumed it’s for humans’ best interest, as anyone claiming they saw a toy talking and moving on its own would either not be believed or would cause others to worry about their mental well-being.
The only time the toys broke this rule was when they escaped Sid, as they knew no one would believe him because of his past behavior, and they didn’t care what others thought because he was a villainous character. However, Toy Story 5 could dive deeper into this. It could explore what the world would be like if everyone found out toys could talk. It would likely not end perfectly well, but it could be a fascinating end for the film.
1 Toy Story 5 Finally Explores Andy’s Dad
There have been several unconfirmed theories about what happened to Andy’s father, as he’s never appeared in any Toy Stoy films, and the franchise never addressed what happened to him. When Andy’s mother referred to Woody as an old family toy, it’s possible she was referring to Andy’s father, who may have also been named Andy, suggesting the name on the bottom of Woody’s boot was not the Andy from Toy Story, but his dad.
If this is true, Woody certainly has memories of Andy’s father that could play out in Toy Story 5, explaining what he was like and what happened to him. This could also lead Woody back to Andy, but even if it doesn’t, hearing about Andy’s father could clear up a lot of questions Toy Story fans have had for years, closing off the franchise with no questions left to answer.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
