Ever since it was officially announced, Toy Story 5 has been a movie that has generated a lot of questions and no small amount of concern. As much as people love the Toy Story franchise, there are many who still feel the movies should have ended after the third one. A fifth movie in the franchise just feels like going back to the well too often for some. And so far, nothing that’s been revealed about the film has put fans entirely at ease.
The latest detail about Toy Story 5 is the latest piece of casting information. Deadline has confirmed that Krys Marshall, most recently of the hit series Paradise (available with a Hulu subscription) will play a role in the new movie. But the most interesting thing about her part is that she’s not playing a toy.
Could We Get A Significant Human Character In Toy Story Who Isn’t A Villain?
While humans have always been part of the Toy Story world, they’ve never been particularly important to it. Even Andy and Bonnie, the humans who own the toys, have never really factored into the plots of the stories they are in.
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The most significant human character in any Toy Story movie has been Al, the owner of Al’s Toy Barn, who steals Woody away in Toy Story 2. He’s the movie’s villain, at least until the Prospector is revealed. Beyond him, humans have never played much of a role.
Little is known about Krys Marshall’s character. The character is set to be a human adult, one who “has to contend” with her child’s new hobby. That hobby, one assumes, is a brand new tablet. We know that Toys vs. Tech is the overarching story of Toy Story 5, as Bonnie will get a tablet and will start to use it more than her toys. The Toy Story 5 trailer has also shown us other kids with tablets. Marshall’s character may be a parent to one of them.
It would be cool, and at least something different, if we got a human character who was a significant role and ostensibly one of the “good guys.” In this case, somebody who is fighting for the same thing as the rest of the toys. Based on little we know, this could be the case, but it could also be something far more mundane.
Or Will Krys Marshall’s Character Simply Tell Us “Screentime Is Bad”
It’s unclear right now even how significant Krys Marshall’s role is. It could just be a small part, a little more than a cameo, though the implication is certainly that this is at least a role on par with other adult humans, like Bonnie’s parents, who are never a focus but are always around.
If that’s the role this is, then it could end up being something far less exciting. The implication of the plot of Toy Story 5 is that it will be something of a statement against screentime in favor of playing with actual toys, or at the very least, a plea for moderation in screentime. If that’s the case, Marshall’s character could end up being little more than a mouthpiece for this argument, and might not be much more than that.
Still, Krys Marshall is arguably the biggest name to voice a human in the Toy Story movies, so it seems unlikely she would only get a cameo or a generic role. Toy Story 5 certainly may surprise us. There could be more going on under the hood than it appears. I, for one, hope so. A simple Toys vs. Tech narrative seems far less creative than previous films in the franchise, and it would be an unfortunate use of talent.