Toy Story 5 originally didn't include Woody. Here's why Pixar changed course.
Andrew Stanton wrote the first draft of Toy Story 5 with no Woody just to see if he missed him. The June 19 release tells you how that experiment ended.
When Pixar announced Toy Story 5, fans assumed Woody would be front and center alongside Buzz Lightyear. After all, the two have been inseparable since 1995. But according to co-director and co-writer Andrew Stanton, that was not always the plan.
In a recent interview with CinemaBlend, Stanton revealed that he wrote the entire first draft of Toy Story 5 without Woody at all. The decision was not about sidelining the character. It was a creative stress test after the emotional ending of Toy Story 4.
Why Woody was left out of the first draft
At the end of Toy Story 4, Woody makes a major life choice. After helping Gabby Gabby find a child and reuniting with Bo Peep, he decides to stay behind at the carnival. He gives up his voice box and chooses to live as a “lost toy,” helping other abandoned playthings find new homes. It was a poignant, mature ending for the character, one that felt like a true send-off.
When it came time to write Toy Story 5, Stanton admitted he was not immediately sure how to bring Woody back in a way that felt organic.
“I do admit that I didn’t know how to bring him back at first, and so I just, ‘cause I know it’s gonna take so many drafts to get the movie right, I just wrote the first one without him just to see if I missed him. And, I did.”
Stanton’s approach was practical and rooted in a writing philosophy he applies to every project.
“My rule is if you take something out, especially a character, would the story be able to happen with or without them? And if it can’t, that means good, that they had to be essential no matter how much, it may not be obvious that they’re the role they’re playing in the movie.”
Stanton has spent more than half his life with Toy Story. He was lead writer on the first three films, a script savior on the fourth, and is now co-writer and co-director on Toy Story 5. In an interview with the Associated Press, he said he was initially skeptical about doing a fifth film at all.
“I didn’t know if where I would want to see it go would match with where the studio would want to see go,” Stanton told the AP. “I cautiously said, let me write the crappy first draft, because I always write a crappy first draft, but at least I’ll figure out myself where I’d like to see it go just as a fan, let alone somebody that’s been behind the camera with it.”
The experiment confirmed what Stanton already suspected. He missed Woody.
“Now I can’t imagine it any other way.”
The plot brings Woody back through a modern crisis
Toy Story 5 is set for release on June 19, 2026 and introduces a distinctly modern dilemma. Bonnie receives a tablet device named Lilypad, and the screen’s glow soon monopolizes the child’s attention. The neglected toys grow increasingly anxious.
Jessie, voiced once again by Joan Cusack, is now leading the room and contacts Woody to discuss the crisis. The reunion with Buzz is reportedly emotional and classic, complete with the good-natured bickering longtime fans will recognize.
Tim Allen, 71, who returns as Buzz Lightyear, has teased that the new film’s center of gravity has shifted.
“I can tell you that it’s a lot about Jessie. Tom and I do, Woody and I, do realign. And there’s an unbelievable opening scene with Buzz Lightyear,” Allen told WIVB.
Tom Hanks, 68, returns as Woody, now sporting a noticeable bald spot that has been a major point of fan discussion since the trailers dropped. Stanton has defended the design choice as a thoughtful detail rather than a marketing gimmick.
Stanton first teased the Toy Story 5 concept at the D23 Expo in August 2024. “This time around, it’s toy meets tech. It’s going to be fun, and we can’t wait for you all see it in the summer of 2026,” he said onstage in Anaheim.
Fans were not initially happy about Woody coming back
Producer Lindsay Collins has been candid about how rocky the public response was when Pixar first revealed that Woody would return. Many fans felt that Toy Story 4 had given the character a perfect send-off and that bringing him back would undercut his arc.
“I just loved after our first teaser, like how much hate we were getting about, like, I thought Woody was gone, and then the second trailer we showed, everybody’s like, ‘Oh, I get it. He needed to come back,’” Collins told CinemaBlend.
The cautionary tale is sitting right there in Pixar’s own library.
Lightyear is the warning Pixar clearly heeded
In 2022, Pixar released Lightyear, a spin-off positioned as “the movie that inspired the Buzz Lightyear toy.” It featured no Woody, no Jessie, and none of the toy-room dynamic that defines the Toy Story franchise.
The result was a financial disappointment. The film grossed roughly $226 million worldwide against a reported $200 million production budget plus marketing, ultimately losing Pixar an estimated $106 million. While the animation and action sequences were strong, the film struggled to capture the heart, humor, and emotional core that audiences associate with Toy Story.
The takeaway was clear. The buddy dynamic between Woody and Buzz, the sarcastic cowboy and the earnest space ranger, is the secret sauce. Removing one half of that duo, or both in Lightyear‘s case, risked turning the franchise into something that felt more like a generic sci-fi adventure than a Toy Story movie.
By testing a version without Woody, Stanton essentially stress-tested the franchise’s foundation. He discovered that while the supporting cast of Jessie, Buzz, Forky, and the rest is strong, the series still needs its original cowboy to feel complete. Woody brings the emotional weight, the history, and the thematic throughline about what it means to be a toy.
Pixar is also being more honest about sequel fatigue
Beyond the Woody question, Pixar has been publicly acknowledging that the studio cannot keep relying on follow-ups to existing properties. Director Daniel Chong, speaking ahead of Pixar's original feature Hoppers, has said the studio recognizes originals have to keep existing alongside the franchise plays, a sentiment Stanton and the broader leadership have echoed in interviews around the Toy Story 5 press cycle.
The right call
Ultimately, Stanton and Pixar made the right decision by bringing Woody back. Toy Story has always been about the relationships between the toys, especially the deep, sometimes complicated friendship between Woody and Buzz. Removing one of them entirely would have felt like missing a vital piece of the puzzle.
The fact that Stanton was willing to experiment in the first draft shows how seriously Pixar takes these characters. They did not just assume Woody had to be there. They tested whether the story needed him. When the answer came back as a clear yes, they found a way to bring him home.
Toy Story 5 will once again feature the full classic duo, now facing a new threat from technology itself. And thanks to Stanton’s early experiment, audiences can feel confident that Woody’s return was earned, not just assumed.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Pirates and Princesses newsroom.
For more Disney, theme parks, geek lifestyle, and family entertainment coverage, visit piratesandprincesses.net. Watch the show on YouTube at @Disney-podcast. Subscribe to the Pirates and Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and wherever you get your podcasts.
Hat Tips:
CinemaBlend, Andrew Stanton’s full interview discussing the first-draft Woody experiment, his rule on character necessity, and his reaction to the bald spot fan discourse
ScreenRant, ComingSoon, SuperHeroHype, and Yahoo Entertainment, follow-up coverage and aggregation of Stanton’s quotes on the writing process
Associated Press and Washington Times, Stanton’s broader career retrospective covering his work as lead writer on Toy Story 1 through 3 and script savior on Toy Story 4
People and WIVB, Tim Allen’s comments about Jessie’s central role in Toy Story 5 and the “unbelievable opening scene with Buzz Lightyear”
Lindsay Collins’ interview comments on fan response to the first and second trailers
Pixar and Disney D23 Expo 2024 reveals, including Stanton’s “toy meets tech” tease
Box office and reception context for Lightyear (2022) from industry reporting
CinemaBlend coverage of Hoppers director Daniel Chong’s comments on Pixar’s commitment to original films