Toy Story 5 Had To Cut One Character's Backstory, But You'll See Some Of It Eventually [Exclusive]
by Ethan Anderton · /FilmThe ongoing "Toy Story" franchise has amassed an impressive roster of characters since its debut in 1995. Aside from the main trio of Sheriff Woody (Tom Hanks), the space ranger Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), and the cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack), plenty of toys have been part of Pixar's animated playtime. From the nervous dinosaur Rex (Wallace Shawn) and the snarky Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles) in Andy's room to the melodramatic hedgehog Mr. Pricklepants (Timothy Dalton) and the sharp but kind Dolly (Bonnie Hunt) in Bonnie's room, we've seen a variety of characters come and go. While we don't learn all of their histories, we've come to know Woody, Buzz, and Jessie quite well, each with their own unique backstory. But one of their trusty companions hasn't been given the spotlight just yet.
When Jessie arrived in "Toy Story 2," she was joined by a couple of other characters from the vintage "Woody's Roundup" collection. Stinky Pete (Kelsey Grammer) turned out to be quite a bad guy, but Woody's trusty steed Bullseye has been a loyal companion ever since the 1999 sequel. Though he's more or less been Jessie's sidekick rather than Woody's, despite their friendship in the aforementioned classic TV show, Bullseye has been a key character in the "Toy Story" franchise, especially when there's some kind of chase sequence.
Well, "Toy Story 5" almost did Bullseye the courtesy of fleshing out his backstory. Unfortunately, the sequence had to be cut from the final version of the movie, but fans should still be able to see these scenes sometime down the road.
During an early press preview for "Toy Story 5," where other reporters and I were shown the first half of the movie, I sat down with director Andrew Stanton, co-director Kenna Harris, and producer Lindsey Collins to talk about the sequel, and they mentioned the deleted scene in question.
Bullseye's backstory got cut out of Toy Story 5
Since Pixar movies undergo countless changes throughout the long pipeline from pre-production to the final cut, I asked what some of the biggest changes were between earlier versions of the movie and what audiences will see in theaters this summer.
Stanton, who has a good argument for continuing "Toy Story" beyond the beloved third movie, revealed that Bullseye's backstory was originally part of the movie at one point. "We followed Bullseye for a while in the early drafts and early reels and, like, saw more of his backstory, which is all valid. I think you'll see some of that stuff on the Blu-ray."
The director, who has worked on every "Toy Story" movie in some capacity since the beginning, explained why they ended up cutting Bullseye's backstory:
"I think it was a distraction, because they were such juicy scenes, but they just weren't servicing the story we were trying to do. So we sort of brought it back, and once we realized friendship was what we were really trying to aim for and the stakes of that for Bonnie, it kind of told us where to head for and what to cut out. But there's a lot of sequences that I just remember that I'm like, 'Why is that gone? Oh, it's because the story's not about that anymore.'"
Story is king at Pixar, and more often than not, a deleted scene gets the axe because it doesn't feed into the larger story in a way that's as meaningful or significant as it needs to be. But we'll certainly be interested to find out more about Bullseye's history when those scenes hit the eventual home media release of "Toy Story 5," which is due in theaters on June 19, 2026.