As we look forward to Toy Story 5’s premiere on the 2026 movie schedule, it’s wild to think about how long the Pixar franchise has been going on. And, when Tom Hanks and Tim Allen turned up together at Las Vegas’ CinemaCon on Thursday to talk about the latest animated sequel, they hilariously pointed out how long they’ve been making these movies with a funny little interaction.
The first Toy Story movie came out back in November 1995, making these movies freshly 30 years old as of a few months ago. Hanks brought this up during the recent appearance with Allen, leading to this exchange:
- Tim Allen: “I don’t think we look any different. We looked at video of us doing it, and we looked like our grandchildren in the video.”
- Tom Hanks: “I thought, did I make the first one when I was in junior high school?”
- Tim Allen: “Horrible.”
- Tom Hanks: “We have both had this experience where we’ve been somewhere in public, and an adult with a little kid has said, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s Buzz Lightyear! It’s Buzz Lightyear! It’s Buzz Lightyear! Honey, this is Buzz Lightyear!’ And the kid looks up and sees that.”
These two probably had no idea that they’d be playing Woody and Buzz Lightyear well into their sixties and seventies (Hanks is 69, and Allen is 72), but they are, and remain beloved for their roles, of course. The actors joked around about looking like their “grandchildren” and like middle school kids when they first made Toy Story three decades earlier, by comparison to today.
Hanks threw the best shade, though, when he told an anecdote about what happens when parents point out to their kids that the actors are Woody and Buzz. He said they are met with a couple of grey-haired guys. Pixar itself kind of has its own wink at how old Woody is getting with the cowboy having a bald spot in one gag in the movie. You can check out the latest Toy Story 5 trailer here:
From what we know about Toy Story 5, this time around, the toys in Bonnie’s room (previously of Andy’s room) will have to fight for attention from a tablet that comes into the kid’s life called Lilypad. All our original favorites are back, including Jessie, Hamm, Rex, Slinky Dog, Mr & Mrs. Potato Head, along with a couple of favorites from Toy Story 4: Forky and Duke Caboom. The movie is helmed by Andrew Stanton, who has been involved in all the previous Toy Story movies. We can look forward to Toy Story 5 hitting theaters on June 19.
Doing the Toy Story movies together has made Tom Hanks and Tim Allen good friends since first starring in the roles back in the ’90s. The pair apparently meet for lunch a few times a year to keep things going, and this fun exchange between them definitely is evidence of their fun-loving relationship.