Toy Story 5 trailer shifts the playing field — who feels it first and why the toys are under threat

The new Toy Story trailer makes it clear who will feel the impact first: children and the toys who depend on their attention. The clip reunites Woody and Buzz with familiar faces while introducing Lilypad, a frog-shaped smart tablet that brings disruptive ideas about what’s best for Bonnie. For longtime toy story audiences, the teaser repositions the franchise around technology competing with old-fashioned play.

Toy Story: who and what face the immediate change

Here’s the part that matters: Lilypad is presented as a modern rival to classic play patterns, and Bonnie—the child central to the toys’ world—stands at the center of that pressure. The trailer frames the conflict as less about a single villain and more about shifting habits: a smart, frog-like tablet that thinks it knows how Bonnie should interact with her toys. Woody, Buzz, Jessie and others are shown reacting to that challenge, which reframes the emotional stakes for the characters and for audiences who grew up watching earlier entries.

What’s easy to miss is how the reunion itself becomes part of the impact. Woody had chosen a life away from the gang in the previous film to help abandoned toys; now he’s back with his original group, and that return forces the franchise to reconcile older loyalties with new realities.

Event details and cast snapshots from the trailer

The trailer brings multiple strands together without a step-by-step reveal. Buzz and Woody meet again—Buzz warmly greets Woody and embraces a slightly balding version of him—then slip into the familiar bickering that characterized earlier films. The roster of returning characters includes Jessie, Hamm, Forky, Slinky Dog, Mr. Potato Head and others who react to the arrival of Lilypad.

• Lilypad: a frog-shaped smart tablet voiced by Greta Lee; presented as a disruptive new toy that challenges traditional play.
• Returning voices confirmed in the trailer include the actors behind Woody and Buzz, plus Joan Cusack as Jessie and others who have appeared across the series.
• New additions shown or announced include an array of characters such as a cheerful GPS hippo toy and a talking camera toy, broadening the toy ecosystem.

Production signals visible in the trailer: an original score by Randy Newman returns, and the film has a confirmed theatrical release date later in June. Direction credits tied to this installment are included in the broader announcements around the clip.

The real question now is how the film will balance nostalgia with commentary on contemporary play: will the story treat Lilypad as a short-term foil, or will the tablet force deeper changes in who the toys are and how they find purpose?

• 1995: the franchise launched with the first fully computer-animated feature.
• 2019: Woody chose to leave his original group to help abandoned toys at the end of the previous film.
• June (this year): Toy Story 5 is scheduled for release in cinemas.

For viewers and families, the trailer signals a film that will ask familiar questions—about friendship, purpose and belonging—through a modern lens. For theatrical windows, the presence of a release date confirms studios are positioning this as a tentpole summer entry.

Key takeaways: the new footage foregrounds playtime as the central battleground, reunites core characters while acknowledging physical changes in familiar faces, and introduces Lilypad as a disruptive technological presence. If you’re wondering why this keeps coming up, it’s because the franchise has always used toys’ relationships to reflect how children’s habits change over time.

It’s easy to overlook, but the trailer’s choice to show Woody returning to his old group—rather than simply keeping him offstage—creates an emotional economy that the story can exploit: reconciliation, rivalry and reinvention all at once. The film’s success in translating that economy to the screen will determine whether the new challenge feels fresh or merely topical.