‘Scary thought’: Tom Hanks warns Disney could use AI to voice Woody in ‘Toy Story 6’ without him

Tom Hanks is back as Woody in Toy Story 5, which set franchise record with its massive $312 million worldwide opening. The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, who conceived the story and co-wrote the screenplay with Kenna Harris. It is the fifth main installment in Pixar’s Toy Story film series and the sequel to Toy Story 4, which was released in 2019.

The ensemble voice cast features Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and Joan Cusack among those reprising their roles from the previous films, joined by Conan O’Brien, Scarlett Spears, Greta Lee, Shelby Rabara, Mykal-Michelle Harris, and Craig Robinson.

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With a budget of $250 million, Toy Story 5 is one of the most expensive animated films ever made. It has grossed $312 million worldwide, breaking several box office records, and has become the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2026.

Hanks puts conditions on a sixth film

With the film performing strongly at the box office, speculation about Toy Story 6 has already begun. Hanks, however, is not making any open-ended commitments.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly after the film’s release, Hanks said any future installment must justify its own existence. “If you’re gonna do another Toy Story, it better be worthwhile. It better be great. You better be examining some theme that is not just dragging it out because people like the title. I mean, it is a huge corporate business without a doubt, I’m not gonna discount that. But unless it’s good, new, fresh, there’s no reason to do it at all,” he told the outlet.

This is not the first time Hanks has drawn a line in the sand about the franchise. On the May 22, 2019 episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Hanks stated that the fourth main film was the final film in the series. That position changed when Disney pushed ahead regardless. In February 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed that a fifth main Toy Story film was in active development.

The AI warning

Beyond the creative argument, Hanks raised a more unsettling concern. He acknowledged that Disney does not technically need his participation to continue the franchise. Every word he has ever recorded as Woody over 31 years exists somewhere in a digital archive.

“Time is undefeated,” Hanks said. “The question would be whether or not we could cobble together some version of me. Every word we have ever recorded in time in Toy Story is on digital media somewhere, so they could put together anything they would want.”

Hanks and his longtime co-star Tim Allen, who voices Buzz Lightyear, both agreed the idea is “a scary thought.”

Hanks has raised this before

This is not a new concern for the actor. During an interview on The Adam Buxton Podcast in 2023, Hanks spoke about how AI and deepfake technology could mean that death is no longer the end of an actor’s career.

He pointed to an earlier moment when the industry first got a glimpse of where things were heading. “The first time we did a movie that had a huge amount of our own data locked in a computer, literally what we looked like, was a movie called The Polar Express,” Hanks said, referring to Robert Zemeckis’ 2004 Christmas film. “We saw this coming, we saw that there was going to be this ability to take zeros and ones from inside a computer and turn it into a face and a character. That has only grown a billion-fold since then and we see it everywhere.”

Hanks said that because of AI and deepfake technology, it is now possible for him to pitch multiple movies in which he would appear as a 32-year-old. He added: “Anybody can now recreate themselves at any age they are by way of AI or deep fake technology. I could be hit by a bus tomorrow and that’s it, but performances can go on and on and on and on. Outside the understanding of AI and deepfake, there’ll be nothing to tell you that it’s not me and me alone. And it’s going to have some degree of lifelike quality. That’s certainly an artistic challenge but it’s also a legal one.”