Disney recently released the first teaser to Toy Story 5, and the new film will see Buzz, Woody, and everyone else go up against… technology?
Yep, the latest entry in the series has the toys contend with a now 8-year-old Bonnie, who becomes enamored with a frog-looking tablet named Lilypad. Instead of being a clash against technology in our daily lives that we typically get in movies, director Andrew Stanton said Pixar is aiming for something a bit more nuanced. “We can’t just get away with making tech the villain. It’s about the realization of an existential problem,” he told Empire. “Nobody’s really playing with toys anymore.”
Stanton’s not wrong there, since there’s a whole generation of kids for whom a “toy” is basically their phone, where they can do everything, from watching TV to hanging with their friends. As such, the studio “can’t just get away with making tech the villain. Technology has changed everybody’s lives, but we’re asking what that means for us—and to our kids,” as the director notes. To further help explore those themes, the film will also include a legion of Buzz Lightyear toys dubbed the Multi-Buzzes, who, after gaining sentience, start to question things and cause trouble for the other toys.
According to its trailer metrics, audiences sure seem to be excited for Toy Story 5 and its “toys meet tech” story. Despite Toy Story 4 initially seeming like the last one, Stanton indicated the series can always be around thanks to its ability to “embrace time and change” in a way Pixar’s other franchises can’t.
“There’s no promise that it stays in amber,” he said. “[Toy Story 3] was the end of the Andy years, but nobody’s being robbed of their trilogy. They can have that and never watch another if they don’t want to.”
Toy Story 5 releases June 19, 2026, in theaters.
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