'Toy Story 4' Was Pitched By Andrew Stanton, And Will There Be A 'Toy Story 5'?

The filmmakers behind Pixar's Toy Story 4 are completely aware that you're wary about another sequel after the third film's tear-jerking conclusion. "We felt the exact same way," director Josh Cooley told us in a recent interview. "Even the idea of Toy Story 4, five years ago, we were like, 'Wait, it's over, though. Why are we even talking about this?'"

But one man convinced Cooley and his team that the story wasn't over yet: Andrew Stanton, the director of Wall-E and Finding Nemo and one of the primary creative forces behind all three previous Toy Story movies. Learn about Stanton's pitch for the fourth film below, and see what these filmmakers have to say about the possibility of a Toy Story 5.

/Film's Jacob Hall spoke with Toy Story 4 director Josh Cooley and producers Mark Neilsen and Jonas Rivera at a recent press event. That full interview will be published later this week, but in the meantime, let's look at how Toy Story 4 came together and whether or not we'll see another follow-up:

Cooley: We started talking about, 'Well, what would be next, after 3's amazing ending?' It definitely intrigued me: Woody's in a new room with a new kid and new toys. This is something we've never seen before. Looking at our own kids, every kid plays differently, so there's no way he's going to be the favorite toy. If he was, if I was watching the movie, I'd say, 'This is stupid, they're just redoing what they've done before.' But having him not be the favorite toy was so fascinating and interesting. For me it was like, 'Oh man, there's something here that feels really cool.'

Rivera: The other thing we talked a lot about is, as great of an ending as [Toy Story 3 has] – and we're all really proud of it – it was the ending of Andy and that thread. That's what led to, 'What would Woody do? He did everything right. Is that the end?' All of a sudden that started to feel like it wasn't the end to us. Andrew Stanton was the one who was like, 'No, I never thought that was the ending.' He saw it the complete other way. And Andrew's so smart, we were like, 'Really? Tell us more.' He kind of pitched it as like, 'No, that's the beginning. That's the beginning of this whole new chapter that could be bigger, deeper, scarier' – all types of possibilities. We just started sitting forward and going, 'Well, that is crazy. What if we turn that upside down?'

I caught an early screening a few days ago, and the movie lives up to the hype of the early buzz, so it's safe to say that the story they came up with justifies the film's existence, which is more than we can say about several other high-profile studio films this summer.

I will not spoil the ending of Toy Story 4 here, but during Jacob's interview, he mentioned that with the way the new movie concludes, he would be perfectly happy if Pixar decided to leave the franchise where it is. Still, he had to ask if conversations about a fifth entry had taken place yet:

Cooley: It has not happened, and I one hundred percent agree with you. I would be totally happy if this was the end.

Neilsen: We've been totally focused on four, so we haven't really thought beyond that. I mean, we never know what the future holds. We didn't think there was going to be a four. We didn't think there was going to be a three after we finished two!

Rivera: We felt like Woody needed to have a completion to his arc, and we've done that. We feel satisfied with it.

Toy Story 4 hits theaters on June 21, 2019.