'Toy Story 4' Is Happening, And It Has A Release Date

Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Mr Potato Head, those little alien dudes and all your other favourite big-screen playthings are officially being brought out of storage, with Disney/Pixar announcing that Toy Story 4 is definitely a thing that is happening, and it'll be with us sooner than you might think.

Steered once more by veteran franchise director John Lasseter, who helmed the first and second films in the series, Toy Story 4 remains a relatively vague concept as far as plot is concerned, but the company has revealed that audiences will be reunited with the mischievous gang of sentient toys on June 16, 2017.

"We love these characters so much; they are like family to us," Lasseter said, in a statement, of resurrecting the franchise, which has lived on with specials such as Toy Story Of Terror since Toy Story 3's 2010 release and seeming punctuation mark on the tale of Andy and his long-suffering action figures.

"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 [Toy Story creative team] Andrew [Stanton], Pete [Docter], Lee [Unkrich] 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."

Rashida Jones, of Parks & Recreation and The Office fame, and Will McCormack — who co-wrote Celeste & Jesse Forever — have joined the writing team for the project, with Pixar veteran Galyn Susman (Toy Story Of Terror, Toy Story That Time Forgot) signing on as producer.