Toy Story 5: because “no one plays with toys anymore”

Director Andrew Stanton explains why it was necessary to bring back Woody and Buzz.

Is Pixar squeezing the lemon too much? Toy Story by releasing yet another sequel, the fifth part of the story of Buzz and Woody?

Andrew Stanton – Oscar-winning director for Wall-E And Finding Nemo – answers the question directly and fully assumes this Toy Story 5which he manages to perfectly justify in an interview with Empire.

For him, the saga is clearly divided into different parts: first the Andy trilogy on one side, then Toy Story 4 and finally everything that follows (and will follow). In other words, nothing prevents the franchise from continuing to evolve as long as the toys have to face the passing of time and changing fashions.

“Toy Story 3 was the end in a way. The film brought the Andy years to a close. No one gets their trilogy stolen: people always have the option to stay with this trilogy and never watch the sequel if they don’t want to. But I’ve always loved this universe. The world of Toy Story allows us to embrace the zeitgeist and change. Nothing is set in stone…”

So what will this sequel mean? What will be the message of Toy Story 5 ?

In this new opus, Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the gang come face to face with… Lilypad, an iPad-style tablet. Toys vs. the screen?

The stakes will be deeper, Stanton promises: “The film isn’t even really about this battle, but rather about the realization of an existential problem: no one really plays with toys anymore! Technology has changed our lives, but the question is what that means for us — and for our children. We can’t just make tech the villain of the story. It couldn’t come down to that…”

Six years later Toy Story 4which became the franchise’s biggest success ($1 billion) and Oscar for best animated film, the sequel therefore arrives with great ambitions to examine today’s society and its relationship to consumption, from the point of view of children.

Toy Story 5 will be released in France on June 17, 2026.