Toy Story Timeline: Every Film in Story Order

The timeline starts with Toy Story 1995, directed by John Lasseter, released in the US on November 22, 1995 and running 81 minutes. It is the only film in the saga set entirely in Andy's early childhood, and every later date on the timeline counts forward from this birthday.

Woody, voiced by Tom Hanks, runs the toy room and holds the top spot in Andy's affections. That changes when a space ranger figure voiced by Tim Allen arrives as a gift, wins over the room with his gadgets and insists he is no toy at all. Woody's jealousy sets up the first big mishap: a plan to shove the newcomer aside before an outing to Pizza Planet ends with him tumbling out of a window. The other toys blame Woody, and the pair are left stranded at a gas station.

The middle stretch happens in Sid's house, where Andy's destructive neighbor collects his catch. A TV commercial there forces the space ranger to face the fact that he is a toy, and Woody's effort to lift his spirits is where their rivalry turns into respect. Sid's mismatched, patched together creations prove kinder than they look, and Woody enlists them to frighten Sid into a gentler attitude toward toys.

Moving day brings the finish. The two chase the truck, use the rocket Sid had strapped to Buzz to catch up and drop into the family car. The film closes at Christmas in the new house, with the toys dreading the next present. Andy unwraps a puppy, and the two friends trade a nervous smile as another rival arrives.

On the timeline, Toy Story 2 sits one summer after the first film. John Lasseter directed it, and it reached US theaters on November 24, 1999, running 92 minutes. It started as a direct to video project, and the studio announced it as a theatrical release in 1998.

The summer in question is Andy's trip to cowboy camp. Woody's torn arm keeps him on a shelf at home, and a yard sale puts him in front of Al McWhiggin, a collector who grabs him and carries him off. In Al's apartment Woody discovers his past as the star of a vintage TV show, Woody's Roundup, and meets Jessie, Bullseye and Stinky Pete the Prospector. Al wants the full set for a toy museum in Tokyo.

While Buzz leads Andy's toys across town, Woody weighs lasting fame in a display case against a short, real life with a child. He picks Andy, and Jessie and Bullseye come along after a close escape through an airport baggage system. For the timeline, the key point is Woody's acceptance that Andy will grow up eventually. Credits roll over a blooper reel with Flik and Heimlich from A Bug's Life.

The clock jumps furthest in Toy Story 3, which moves from Andy's childhood to the eve of his departure for college. Lee Unkrich directed it, the US release came on June 18, 2010, and it runs 103 minutes.

Andy is 17 here, and his toys have gone years without much playtime. His plan is simple: one bag for the attic and a few favorites for college. A mix-up by his mother sends the attic bag to the curb, so the toys decide they have been thrown out and hide in a donation box. It delivers them to Sunnyside Daycare, where Lotso, a strawberry scented teddy bear, greets them warmly and then runs the place like a dictator. Newcomers land in the rough toddler room, and Buzz is switched into demo mode and begins following Lotso's orders.

Woody, who knows what Andy actually intended, goes back for his friends after meeting a girl named Bonnie. The chase runs through a garbage truck and a landfill with a recycling and incinerator plant, where the Aliens rescue the group with a crane and Lotso ends up strapped to a truck. The handoff closes the Andy era: he gives the toys to Bonnie, plays with them one last time and drives away. Barbie, Ken and Big Baby help improve Sunnyside.

Toy Story 4 opens the Bonnie era in full. Josh Cooley directed it, it arrived in US theaters on June 21, 2019, and it follows a Woody who spends more time in the closet than on the bed.

The new arrival is Forky, made by Bonnie from a spork and craft supplies before her first day of kindergarten. He believes he is trash, so Woody appoints himself his guardian, and a family road trip turns into a chase when Forky leaps from the RV. In a small town Woody finds Bo Peep, who now lives as a lost toy with her sheep and the tiny police toy Giggle McDimples. Elsewhere, Buzz wanders off at a traveling carnival and befriends the prize toys Ducky and Bunny.

Gabby Gabby, a doll longing for a child, bargains for Woody's voice box in return for Forky's safe return. She eventually finds her child at the carnival, and Woody makes a different choice from his earlier ones: he stays with Bo and the lost toys, while Buzz urges him to follow his heart. The RV drives off without him, and he and his friends help prize toys find children. Midway through the credits, Forky meets Karen Beverly, a plastic knife toy voiced by Melissa Villasenor.

The latest entry, Toy Story 5, is the farthest point on the timeline, set several years after the previous film. Andrew Stanton directed it, the US release was June 19, 2026, and it runs 102 minutes.

Bonnie is older now, and the new thing in her room is Lilypad, a frog shaped tablet whose app praises her constantly. Teasing from classmates pushes Bonnie to put her toys out of sight. Jessie leads the campaign to bring her back to real play, and Woody and Buzz help, though Lilypad sincerely believes she is doing Bonnie good. A second thread tracks a crowd of high tech Buzz Lightyear toys that drifts ashore and starts its own journey.

A detour takes Jessie and Bullseye to the house of Jessie's first owner, Emily, where a girl named Blaze lives. Once Lilypad realizes she has isolated Bonnie, she hurls herself onto a donation truck, and the Buzzes turn into drones to carry everyone out of danger. Blaze returns the pair to Bonnie, the girls become friends, and Lilypad joins their games. Woody sets off down the road again with Bo Peep, staying in touch with the group by walkie-talkie.

Lightyear, directed by Angus MacLane and released in the US on June 17, 2022, is the spin-off that the franchise lists sixth in chronological order, after Toy Story 5, even though it reached theaters four years earlier. Chris Evans voices the lead, and the film runs 105 minutes.

Its story stands apart from the toy room. A Star Command crew led by Buzz and his commander and best friend Alisha Hawthorne lands on the hostile planet T'Kani Prime. A mistake during the escape leaves the ship stranded, so the crew builds a colony and Buzz takes on the job of testing a hyperspace fuel crystal. Each flight lasts only minutes for him but costs years back home. Alisha gives him a robot cat called Sox, and over those lost years she grows old and dies while he is away.

His final test jump drops him 22 years ahead, into a colony threatened by Zyclops robots serving the giant Zurg. He joins Alisha's granddaughter Izzy, an anxious recruit named Mo and a former convict named Darby. Zurg then captures him and claims to be an older Buzz from another timeline who wants to undo the stranding, and the fuel crystal is what he is after. A scene during or after the credits indicates that Zurg survived the explosion.

Nothing is confirmed after Toy Story 5 on the timeline, because Toy Story 6 has no confirmed release date, greenlight or production status. No studio or trade report has announced a sixth film, and a Pixar slate report from TheWrap lists other films for 2027 and 2028 without mentioning it.

The credits scenes of Toy Story 5 do open a door. After the title sequence, a lonely child on a playground is handed a next generation Buzz, other kids each get one, and a teacher keeps one. The scene ends with a child pulling out a high tech Zurg toy. That toy is a tease, but it does not confirm a sequel.

Any Toy Story 6 date you see on fan blogs or wikis is unsourced rumor. If a studio announcement arrives, new footage will appear on the Toy Story 6 trailer page.

In my opinion, the Toy Story timeline works because every film changes who a toy belongs to, and that gives the saga a clear spine. The first film is about a toy afraid of being replaced, the second is about a toy deciding whether to be preserved or loved, the third is about a child outgrowing everything, and the fourth and fifth ask what a toy does once the old rules no longer apply. Read in order, the five films are a long argument about what being played with means.

The parallels are what make me trust the order. Toy Story (1995) ends at Christmas with the toys fearing what gift Andy will get, and Toy Story 3 returns to that fear with a bag of toys at the curb. Toy Story 2 gives Woody a museum in Tokyo and a reason to stay, and Toy Story 4 gives him a different kind of freedom with Bo Peep. It could be argued that Woody's choice in the fourth film only lands because he made the opposite choice in the second.

Lightyear is the one entry I would handle with care. It is a spin-off whose time dilation plot (each short flight costing years) has nothing to do with the toy room, and the franchise lists it sixth in chronological order. That being said, the 2022 film leaves Zurg's survival open, which is the same Zurg hook that Toy Story 5 plays with in its credits.

Practically, that gives you two ways to use the timeline. For the toy story, watch the five main films in order. For the full set, add Lightyear as a separate spin-off after them.

One more opinion: Toy Story 5 makes its antagonist a gadget that believes she is helping, and that is an interesting move after Sid, Al and Lotso. It also fits the saga's pattern of showing a new era of childhood each time, with Andy's toys, Bonnie's craft table and now a screen. For families choosing a viewing order, I would not skip any of the main five.