A little over 15 years ago, audiences around the world walked out of theaters thinking that they had just watched the finale in the beloved Toy Story series... but they turned out to be wrong. In addition to Pixar continuing to produce short films featuring the characters from the franchise, we saw the release of Toy Story 4 in 2019, Lightyear in 2022, and Toy Story 5 is coming in 2026. In that time, some fans have opined the further expansion of the canon, wishing on social media that the conclusion of Toy Story 3 had been a firm ending – and if you're a part of that collection, the helmer of the next installment has some helpful advice for you.
Andrew Stanton, a Pixar legend, is writing and directing Toy Story 5 (which is penciled on the 2026 movie release calendar for June), and in a recent interview with Empire, he explained why he feels as though any Toy Story trilogy purists really shouldn't worry about the series continuing to expand past the third chapter. He argues that the existence of the three movies as an arc isn't actually impacted by more stories being told and that people who aren't interested in seeing new sequels simply don't have to pay attention to them. Said Stanton,
