It’s Really Happening…’Toy Story 4′ is in the Works

John Lasseter Directing Toy Story 4
Director John Lasseter works with members of his story team on Disney•Pixar’s ‘”Toy Story 4’ (Photo by Deborah Coleman / © Pixar)

This is not a really early April Fool’s Day joke or any other kind of a prank. Disney and Pixar are in fact planning a Toy Story 4 and the director of 1 and 2 will be back to helm this fourth film of the series which supposedly ended with the third offering. John Lasseter will direct and came up with the story along with Lee Unkrich, Pete Docter, and Andrew Stanton. Now, with all four of these Pixar filmmakers working on the story there’s a possibility Toy Story 4 isn’t just a cash grab and will actually be a film worthy of being a part of Pixar’s best franchise.

Announcing Toy Story 4, Lasseter said, “We love these characters so much; they are like family to us. We don’t want to do anything with them unless it lives up to or surpasses what’s gone before. Toy Story 3 ended Woody and Buzz’s story with Andy so perfectly that for a long time, we never even talked about doing another Toy Story movie. But when Andrew, Pete, Lee and I came up with this new idea, I just could not stop thinking about it. It was so exciting to me, I knew we had to make this movie—and I wanted to direct it myself.”

Toy Story 3 seemed to have been the perfect way to end the saga as it was emotionally engaging and heartfelt, and it appealed to all generations of fans. Toy Story 4 is going to have an extremely difficult time living up to its predecessors.

Disney and Pixar are anticipating a June 16, 2017 theatrical release of Toy Story 4.