John Lasseter to Direct TOY STORY 4

To infinity… and beyond!

Buzz, Woody, and the rest of the beloved gang are set to return to the big screen as the folks over at Disney•Pixar have revealed plans for ‘Toy Story 4.’

The announcement was made during the Walt Disney Company’s quarterly earnings call by Disney head Bob Iger, who confirmed that John Lasseter will take the helm of the fourth outing, due for release Summer 2017.

The story for the new film was dreamt up by Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter and Lee Unkrich, the storytellers who have been the driving force behind all three ‘Toy Story’ films.

“We love these characters so much; they are like family to us,” said Lasseter in a statement. “We don’t want to do anything with them unless it lives up to or surpasses what’s gone before. ‘Toy Story 3’ ended Woody and Buzz’s story with Andy so perfectly that for a long time, we never even talked about doing another ‘Toy Story’ movie. But when Andrew, Pete, Lee and I came up with this new idea, I just could not stop thinking about it. It was so exciting to me, I knew we had to make this movie—and I wanted to direct it myself.”

Lasseter, who currently holds the title of chief creative officer of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, directed the first film in the series back in 1995, and returned to direct the second in 1999. The third film, released in 2010, was directed by Unkrich.

Writing team Rashida Jones and Will McCormack (‘Celeste and Jesse Forever’) are on board to pen the script, and Pixar veteran Galyn Susman (‘Toy Story OF TERROR!’ and ‘Toy Story that Time Forgot’) is producing.