Did you know that Toy Story 5 almost didn’t include our pal Woody? Since Toy Story 4 ends with his retirement, I can see where the filmmakers were coming from initially. But man, am I happy they found a way to keep him in all while finally giving Jessie the limelight! I was living for all the gags the character has in the latest of 2026 movies, especially after learning more about how it came together during Pixar’s famously collaborative filmmaking process.
Pixar Had The Best Time With Woody’s Toy Story 5 Gags
I mean, between Woody rocking a poncho, having a bald spot and taking a leadership role with Bo Peep as a hero to toys, I absolutely adored seeing the cowboy back in action. And during a Q&A with the Toy Story 5 filmmakers that CinemaBlend was in attendance for, writer/director Andrew Stanton shared how they found a way to give Woody these hilarious moments. In his words:
We were like, ‘What do we do with Woody?’ 'How [has] time treated him?’ And, we definitely knew that he was really loving retired life with a new purpose of not being devoted to one kid, but to all the toys that needed to be his kids. And so, he’d be out in the wilderness, out in the field, not worrying about things. I feel like, because he gave up his pull string in 4, he’s kind of just adventuresome now, with wear and tear. Like, he’ll leap and just take risks that he probably wouldn’t have before.
After Toy Story 4 gave Woody such a sweet send off, it definitely makes sense that Pixar would be scratching their heads over what to do with the iconic character next. But, I think they absolutely nailed it. As Stanton added:
And so, that would be the equivalent of the balding, [his hair is] worn off from just not trying to take care of himself so much anymore and doing whatever dirty work needed to be done to save a toy. And, we did a gag session of like older toy gags and a lot of those ideas came from that.
Woody playing into some middle-aged / retired men stereotypes was definitely a fun way to show the cowboy doll is aging in a relatable way fans can laugh together about. And as you can imagine, once they had landed on that, a lot more ideas than they knew what to do with started to roll in.
How Woody Being Retired Inspired More Ideas Behind The Scenes
Kenna Harris, who co-wrote Toy Story 5, also revealed the funny extra step they almost took with Woody. In her words:
It didn’t make it in, but we wanted to make him sun-bleached too. We wanted to make him insanely sun-bleached from all that time.
Yeah, that’s fun. I sort of get why they might have ultimately decided not to, because then Woody would look much different than usual and it’d be more difficult to reverse that coloring. But still, that would have been another great addition to Woody’s Toy Story 5 characterization. Stanton also said this:
And, Tom loved that. So he threw in little lines like, ‘Oh my hip’ and things like that. It was fun.
So, apparently we can thank Tom Hanks for really playing along with Woody getting older, and leaning into it through the voice work, too, with improved bits. I just love how the creative team behind Toy Story 5 went from not knowing what to do with Woody to giving him some of the most hilarious moments in the whole movie.
And, that’s just one reason why I totally agree with the sequel’s critical acclaim! Toy Story 5 is in theaters now.