Toy Story 4 won’t be a direct sequel, says Pixar President

Late last year, the news that Toy Story 4 was happening made many of us grumpy at the prospect of Toy Story 3‘s satisfying – some might say perfect – conclusion being undone. But it seems as if that isn’t necessarily the case, as the President of Pixar, Jim Morris, revealed to Disney Latino more of the nature of this sequel:

‘The third movie ended in a beautiful way and completed a trilogy… I think this movie is not part of this trilogy. It is a separate story, which in turn I do not know if will be continued. Never begin a project with that in mind.’

Despite its vagueness, this statement is reassuring – even without any hint of what the plot could be. But Morris goes on, giving us a bigger clue as to the movie’s format:

‘It is not a continuation of the end of the story of Toy Story 3… It will be a love story. It will be a romantic comedy. It will not put much focus on the interaction between the characters and children. I think it will be a very good movie.’

So Toy Story 4 will be a romantic comedy, with less focus on the humans, and with a separate narrative to the previous three. But who is this ‘love story’ between? In Toy Story 3, there was a certain Spanish flame between Buzz Lightyear and Jessie – but at this point, we’ve nothing to go on. But another positive: the incredibly talented John Lasseter, who helmed both Toy Story and Toy Story 2, is in the director’s chair; so given what we have, there are more reasons to think that a fourth instalment could be a good thing rather than a bad thing. All will be revealed in 2017, when the movie is estimated to be released.

And another thought: given Morris’ description of how the film will differ from the previous three movies, will it even end up being called Toy Story 4? Maybe it’ll go the Mission Impossible route with rogue colons. Toy Story: The Toys are Back in Town? We can only hope.