Toy Story 5 will keep Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head in the action, despite the deaths of the original voice stars behind the fan-favorite characters.
Pixar‘s latest sequel in the Oscar-winning animated franchise hits theaters June 19. Writer-director Andrew Stanton‘s movie centers on Tom Hanks as the voice of Woody and Tim Allen voicing Buzz Lightyear as the heroes butt heads with new tablet Lilypad (Greta Lee).
During a Reddit AMA on Tuesday, Stanton responded to a fan’s question about how the franchise dealt with replacing the late Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head and Estelle Harris as the character’s wife. In Disney‘s new movie, Jeff Bergman voices Mr. Potato Head, while Anna Vocino is the voice of Mrs. Potato Head.
“There were auditions for that, yes,” Stanton replied. “We found two people that sounded very close to the original actors!”
Rickles, who died in 2017 at 90, had voiced Mr. Potato Head since the original Toy Story that hit theaters in 1995, while Harris, whose Mrs. Potato Head was introduced during 1999’s Toy Story 2, passed away in 2022 at 93. Mr. Potato Head had a small role in 2019’s Toy Story 4 through the use of Rickles’ archival recordings as the character.
The Toy Story 5 trailer, released last week, includes Bergman’s Mr. Potato Head reflecting on Woody and Buzz’s friendship: “It’s good to see them fighting again.”
Additionally, Toy Story 5 will see Ernie Hudson take over the part of Combat Carl after Carl Weathers, who died in 2024 at 76, voiced the role in Toy Story 4.
During the Reddit AMA to promote the release of his Hulu feature In the Blink of an Eye, Stanton was also asked if he would do anything differently on his 2012 movie John Carter, given that the live-action Disney film became an infamous box office flop. Stanton, who has been involved in the writing process of every Toy Story movie, has also helmed such features as Finding Nemo, WALL-E and Finding Dory.
“If I got to do it again, I would do everything exactly that same as before,” Stanton responded about John Carter. “I loved every second of making that movie.”