‘Toy Story 6’ Buzz Hinted by Andrew Stanton, Who Wants a Full Bonnie Trilogy to Mirror Andy’s Story
The ‘Toy Story’ franchise has spent three decades convincing audiences that toys have feelings, and somehow it still works every single time. With ‘Toy Story 5’ now in theaters, fans are once again asking the question that has followed this series since 1995, which is how many more chapters Pixar actually has left in the tank. The answer, according to the people actually making these movies, might be more than anyone expected.
Pixar has built its entire emotional engine around watching children grow up alongside their toys, and that formula has not gotten old yet. The first three films told a complete story about Andy, ending with him handing Woody and the gang off to a little girl named Bonnie in ‘Toy Story 3’. That handoff quietly set up everything that has happened since, including the new film currently playing in theaters.
That brings us to the actual news. Speaking on the red carpet at the ‘Toy Story 5’ premiere in early June, director Andrew Stanton revealed that the original trilogy was the “end of the Andy years” before adding “we’ve got another trilogy with Bonnie.” It is the clearest signal yet that Pixar is not just open to a ‘Toy Story 6’, it is actively shaping one around Bonnie the same way the studio once shaped three films around Andy.
Stanton expanded on that idea when Dexerto’s Jacqui Faiman asked where he would like to see the franchise go over the next three decades. He explained that he wants the series to stay honest and follow the lives of the kids, calling that approach the reason Andy’s arc felt like a closed, perfect trilogy, and saying he hopes the same can happen for Bonnie and whoever else enters her world. Producer Lindsey Collins backed up that philosophy, noting that the franchise has always worked because it stays honest to what is actually happening in kids’ lives across different eras.
Stanton has also been candid in other interviews about just how much story is left. He told Entertainment Weekly that after only two months brainstorming the general lifecycle of a toy during development of the fifth film, he became convinced there was enough material for at least two more movies. Separately, he told Screen Rant that you can never say never on a sequel, adding that he always saw a natural path in simply continuing to follow Bonnie’s life as the toys experience it alongside her.
Nothing is official yet. Toy Story 5 does not appear to be setting up a direct sequel or ending on a cliffhanger, instead functioning as a complete story the way ‘Toy Story 3’ and ‘Toy Story 4’ did before it. The franchise has generated roughly sixteen billion dollars in revenue for Disney since 1995, which makes the financial argument for continuing fairly easy to make. Since Bonnie is still quite young, a ‘Toy Story 6’ could plausibly age her up through a time jump, mirroring the bittersweet growing up arc that defined Andy’s send off.
So the blueprint is sitting right there, waiting on a greenlight. If Bonnie really is about to get her own perfect trilogy, what do you want her version of growing up to look like for Woody and the rest of the gang?
