When Disney CEO Bob Iger casually announced "Toy Story 4" during an earnings call in November, it was a huge surprise.
The successful Pixar trilogy didn't appear to need another followup.
2010's seemingly final film came full circle.
The young boy from the first film, Andy, who owned toys Woody and Buzz, grew up. Before heading off to college, he handed off his old toy collection to a new young owner to carry on his adventures with the cowboy and space ranger.
At the time of its release, the film became the highest-grossing animated picture ever until "Frozen.""Toy Story 3"grossed over $1 billion. It went out on top.
What else is left to tell?
/Film happened upon an interview with Pixar Animation Studios president Jim Morris done in Spanish on blog Disney Latino in which he discusses brief details about the anticipated next film.
According to Morris, "Toy Story 4" won't be a continuation of the third film. Instead, "Toy Story 4" will be a romantic comedy, one that won't focus on the interaction between the characters and kids.
As /film points out, if that's true, it sounds like the upcoming film may follow the setup of the newer "Toy Story" short specials which focus on the toys' interactions with each other.
/film translated parts of the interview via Google.
Business Insider double checked over the original article to translate.
Here's a section of the interview translated in English:
What stage of production is "Toy Story 4" in?
We will have the third table reading. Usually, after working on the idea with the story team and the writers who will be finishing their screenplay, we call Pixar or include actors to sit down and read the script. It’s evolving very well. We are coming up with a beautiful story. It isn’t a continuation of the last film “Toy Story 3.” It is temporarily, but it will be a love story. It will be a romantic comedy. It will not have much focus on the interaction between the characters and the children. I think it will be a very good movie.
Honestly, I never thought that we would be doing another Toy Story movie, but in one of the brainstorming sessions that we did, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, and John Lasseter had this idea. To John, it seemed irresistible and felt the need to make it. The third film had ended in a way that was beautiful and that completed a trilogy. I think that this film isn't part of this trilogy. It's a separate story, which in turn … I’m not sure whether it will be a continuation. We never start a project with that in mind.
Morris goes on to defend the making of “Toy Story 4,” saying that Pixar only decides to do sequels if they have an idea they’re passionate about, and reassures that they're not exploiting the franchise just for the sake of another film.
"Fortunately, our movies are successful, and we don't have to exploit them by making sequels for money," he adds. "That's not what it's about. It's about an idea that is met with enthusiasm."
"Toy Story 4" is set for a June 16, 2017 release.
You can read the full interview with Morris, here.
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