Woody's Shocking Toy Story 5 Design Change Addressed By Pixar Team - MCE Notices | California State Portal

The team behind the upcoming Pixar film Toy Story 5 just opened up to ScreenRant about why they changed Woody’s appearance after all these years.

Ahead of the release of Toy Story 5, which arrives in theaters on June 19, the trailer for the animated movie revealed that Woody looks slightly different this time around, as he has a bald spot on the top of his head and a belly.

Now, in an interview with ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan, director Andrew Stanton, co-screenwriter Kenna Harris, producer Lindsey Collins and visual effects supervisor Thomas Jordan are addressing the design change and what they thought of fans’ reactions after the trailer was released.

Stanton admitted the shocked fan reactions caught him off guard, but Harris admitted that “we loved it.”

Collins echoed that sentiment, adding that everyone is “super protective” of this beloved character, Woody, who has been in the pop culture zeitgeist for over three decades.

Fans “were mad that we had done it,” she added, before explaining that various companies got in on the joke, with Sharpie saying, “We got you, Woody,” and the Disney theme parks’ social media accounts replying, “We can’t see your bald spot from here, Woody.“

Even though the main characters in the Toy Story franchise are toys and not humans, they still “move along with time like the rest of us,” noted Stanton, so it made sense for Woody to start showing his age.

Andrew Stanton: “That I didn’t see coming.”

Kenna Harris: “We loved it.”

Lindsey Collins: “I loved it. I loved the fact that A, everybody thought it was funny. B, that people were super protective of them. They’re like, ‘Oh no, Woody.’ They’re like, ‘How dare they at Pixar!’ They were mad that we had done it, and Sharpie was like, ‘We got you, Woody.’ And they were doing this thing, and then the parks were like, ‘We can’t see your bald spot from here, Woody.’ Everybody was chiming in and I was like, ‘Oh my god, everybody’s super protective of Woody, I love that.'”

Andrew Stanton: “I just love that they embrace the fact that they move along with time like the rest of us.”

When the filmmakers decided to make that plunge into showing how much Woody has changed, even just during the time between Toy Story 4, which came out in 2019, and Toy Story 5, there were a lot of discussions about how to go about doing that.

As Jordan explained, Woody doesn’t live in Bonnie’s bedroom anymore. “He’s off in the wild helping lost toys find new kids,” he said.

During one particular conversation, someone added a bald spot to the character, “and people laughed and didn’t take it seriously at first.” However, once the visual settled in with the team, it became obvious what a “brilliant” move that would be.

They also gave Woody a pot belly, which occurred due to the movement of the stuffing inside the body. “The pot belly and…the bald spot, we thought it was funny, but we didn’t realize it was going to be as popular as it actually is now,” Jordan admitted. “It’s absolutely gone viral.”

Thomas Jordan: “There was a lot of talk about, ‘How do we show that Woody has changed since Toy Story 4? He no longer lives in Bonnie’s room. He’s off in the wild helping lost toys find new kids.’ There was a joke session in the story room about what that might look like, and someone happened to make a bald spot, and people laughed and didn’t take it seriously at first. And then everyone paused and said, ‘Wait a minute. That’s actually brilliant. What else we got?” The potbelly and—but the bald spot, we thought it was funny, but we didn’t realize it was going to be as popular as it actually is now. It’s absolutely gone viral.”

The Toy Story franchise began when Millennials were kids, and people in this generation are now in their 30s and 40s, some with families of their own who are being introduced to the beloved Pixar film series for the first time.

When Toy Story 3 was released in 2010, it was seen at the time as a conclusion to the beloved series and the end of many people’s childhoods.

Nine years later, Pixar dove back into the world of Toy Story with a fourth installment that earned $1.07 billion at the box office and became the highest-grossing film in the series.

Critics also showered Toy Story 4 with overwhelming praise and a nearly perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 97% (compared to perfect scores for the first two movies and a 98% for the threequel).

Toy Story 5 is bringing back Tom Hanks as a balding Woody and Tom Allen as Buzz Lightyear, along with Joan Cusack, Greta Lee, Conan O’Brien, Tony Hale, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn, Annie Potts, Bonnie Hunt, Melissa Villaseñor, Kristen Schaal, Keanu Reeves, Alan Cumming and Bad Bunny.

Toy Story 4 marked a new box office high for the animated series, and Toy Story 5 is expected to shatter those records with a projected opening weekend of $150 million, proving that the franchise is alive and well, even if Woody has started showing his age.

Toy Story 5 will be released in theaters on Friday, June 19, 2026.