Disney has signed up Conan O’Brien for a role in Toy Story 5.
The redheaded chat show host will voice a mysterious new character named Smarty Pants in the upcoming movie.
O’Brien announced his involvement in Toy Story 5 via his official TeamCoco Instagram account, via a skit in which he jokingly suggests he asked Disney if he could voice Woody or Buzz Lightyear instead. (Thankfully, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are already signed up to reprise their legendary roles.)
No other details on O’Brien’s character were mentioned, leaving fans to speculate on who exactly Smarty Pants might be.
Toy Story 5 will reunite Woody, Buzz and the rest of Pixar’s beloved cast for a fresh adventure that sees the traditional toys having to grapple with a world in which kids are now more interested in gadgets, gizmos and other technology.
Could Smarty Pants be some kind of electronic toy, and perhaps an antagonist for our intrepid toy heroes? Time will tell.
O’Brien’s casting is the first time a fresh character has been announced for Toy Story 5, suggesting this is a casting of some importance.
Toy Story 5 will mark the first major new entry in Pixar’s series since Toy Story 4 in 2019. A spin-off, Lightyear, which focused on the in-universe exploits of the original Buzz Lightyear character, launched in 2022 but was widely considered a flop.
Now, Disney is hoping to breathe fresh life back into its main Toy Story brand once more, despite the risks of having to follow the series’ universally-praised original trilogy.
Toy Story 5 is set to launch on June 19, 2026, and will be the first of several new sequels to classic Pixar films due over the next few years, with Incredibles 3 and Coco 2 also on the cards.
Photo by Daniel Boczarski/Redferns.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
