Wait, Is Toy Story 4 Planning On KILLING OFF Woody?!

While the world loses its head over a spork or questions why Toy Story 4 is even necessary, there's a far more important subject we all need to talk about when it comes to Pixar's 2019 sequel. Death.

At the heart of that question about why this sequel even exists is the need to justify the extension of the Toy Story franchise and the only suitable answer would be that there's a big enough story to warrant it. A spork having an identity crisis doesn't cut it. An adventure to rescue Bo Peep wouldn't either. And nor would the new world of Bonnie's bedroom. It has to be something far bigger.

In short, it has to be the death of a main character and there are some pretty big hints already that that main character might well be Woody. It'd be heartbreaking, of course, but that doesn't mean it's not going to happen. In fact, that sort of sounds like the most Pixar thing ever.

Let's look at the evidence...

5. The Story

Firstly, it's now been confirmed that the film will at least partly look into the existential crisis of existence being suffered by new character Forky (whose name makes no sense, given that he's a spork, but anyway). Why's that important? Well, the existential crisis of being for toys has more than one point of intrigue: it's not just a matter of when they come to be alive, it's when they come to be dead. Cheerful, but that's definitely how Pixar would balance that story.

Add to that the fact that Woody was said to be going on a journey to find Bo Peep and you've got another reason to suspect that something bad is going to happen. It could well be that Woody chooses to retire with Bo Peep, wherever he ends up finding her, but that wouldn't be a grand enough gesture. Him choosing to die FOR her would be far more fitting and it would fit in with Pixar's delightful line on devastating deaths, which have so far skirted the Toy Story franchise.

Nobody wanted Bing Bong to die, but it was important for Inside Out's ideas that he did. The same goes for Arlo's father in The Good Dinosaur and Ellie in the opening of Up: those were deaths that were intricately planned to affect other characters and change the story massively. Toy Story needs that as a franchise and in the story they've set up for Woody in Toy Story 4, they have the perfect opportunity to impact their remaining characters while addressing a key theme of the franchise.

There's also a big hint in the information Pixar have released on the story...