Toy Story 4 Lands New Director

The return of Woody, Buzz and their team of merry toybox chums is on the horizon. Set to dominate the box office in two years’ time,  Toy Story 4 is positioned to land in theaters in summer 2017. John Lasseter, who ushered the first two entries to the big screen, was announced to direct last year and now, he’s looking to ease the load.

Story chief on the upcoming Inside Out, Josh Cooley, will now work alongside Lasseter as co-director on the animated caper. Disney took to Twitter to announce his involvement, which included the expected celebratory tone:

Rootin’, tootin’ news from the playset: Josh Cooley (@CooleyUrFaceOff) will co-direct #ToyStory4, debuting in 2017. pic.twitter.com/tkcggO0zVT

— Disney•Pixar (@DisneyPixar) March 11, 2015

Cooley, who started his Pixar journey as a story intern on Cars, went on to tell Variety (via /Film) about joining the studio’s biggest franchise:

To be co-director on ‘Toy Story 4’ with John, who brought the ‘Toy Story’ characters to the screen 20 years ago, is a dream come true. When I first saw ‘Toy Story’ I was amazed by the groundbreaking computer-generated animation. But it was the strong storytelling that kept me coming back. ‘Toy Story 4’ will continue that tradition and I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of it!

Toy Story 4 has already received its fair share of detractors, whose unified cries have championed the brilliance of the third movie – which in many folks’ eyes served as the perfect ending to the original trilogy. In response, Pixar president Jim Morris soothed those worries.

“It is not a continuation of the end of Toy Story 3,” he said earlier this month. “Temporarily, it is, but it will be a love story. It will be a romantic comedy.”

Written by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, Toy Story 4 is scheduled to arrive sometime in 2017.