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It’s 2026 and we’re still getting new “Toy Story” movies. In fact, we’re now on “Toy Story 5” — and the original was released in 1995, some 31 years ago. How long can Disney and Pixar keep this madness up?
It’s a thought that’s crossed the mind of Tom Hanks, the voice behind series’ rootin’ tootin’ protagonist Woody.
In a recent Entertainment Weekly interview with his co-star Tim Allen (the voice of the franchise’s Buzz Lightyear), Hanks morbidly considered the possibility that when he dies, the overlords at Disney could simply replace his performance with AI if they wanted to, ushering in yet more “Toy Story” sequels and further extending the IP well past its shelf life.
“Time is undefeated. The question would be whether or not we could cobble together some version of me,” Hanks ruminated. “Every word we have ever recorded in time in ‘Toy Story’ is on digital media somewhere, so they could put together anything they would want.”
Hanks and Allen agreed that the idea is a “scary thought.”
It’s not the first time Hanks has fretted about AI’s possibilities. Earlier this month he told The San Francisco Chronicle he was concerned that moviegoers might become indifferent to whether something is human made or AI slop.
“Here’s what I worry about: that there will be something that will be blatantly AI — created, imagined, produced, the whole bit — and the audience won’t care that it’s AI,” Hanks said in the interview. “They’ll just say, ‘Well, it’s AI, but you know, I still watched it.’”
“There is a certain type of human element that is required in the contract between the audience and the filmmakers,” he added, “and if one side of that doesn’t care about that contract…”
Hanks has had his run-ins with AI. He’s had to repeatedly warn his fans of various scams that used AI deepfakes of his likeness without his permission. On the other hand, he had AI de-aging tech used on him for the 2024 Robert Zemeckis film “Here” — a use case he defended.
Of course, soulless cash-grabs predate AI, and Hanks is ambivalent on more “Toy Story” sequels, even with him in it.
“If you’re gonna do another ‘Toy Story,’ it better be worthwhile,” he told EW. “It better be great. You better be examining some theme that is not just dragging it out because people like the title. I mean, it is a huge corporate business without a doubt, I’m not gonna discount that. But unless it’s good, new, fresh, there’s no reason to do it at all.”
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