Toy Story 5 successfully kept a Taylor Swift secret hidden for months. It’s now come to light that the pop star recorded a special song for the film earlier this year, but the details weren’t made public until recently. An important person behind the upcoming animated movie has now explained why.
Why did Taylor Swift’s Toy Story 5 song have to be kept under wraps for so long?
During a panel at SXSW London, Toy Story 5 VFX supervisor Thomas Jordan finally spilled the beans and mentioned everything about the song titled I Knew It, I Knew You by Taylor Swift. No one knew about the song or her involvement with the movie for months, reports Variety.
“Taylor Swift is a huge ‘Toy Story’ fan like many of us,” Jordan revealed during the panel. He added, “She actually saw an early version of the film, she requested to see it before it was finished and she wrote the song and then asked us if we wanted it. And we said, ‘Uh, yes! Yes we do.’”
All of this happened in February, “so we’ve had to keep it a secret ever since then.” Jordan mentioned that the level of secrecy over the song was very tight. So much so, that only “a very small group” of people knew about the song’s existence.
In order to keep it a secret ahead of the film’s release, the team had to “create a decoy version” of Toy Story 5 that didn’t feature Taylor Swift’s song to show press and other Pixar/Disney staff. Even the crew that made the movie wasn’t aware of this secret.
As for the movie, it’s going to bring back fan-favorite toy characters, namely Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), Woody (Tom Hanks), and Jessie (Joan Cusack). Keanu Reeves will also appear in the role of Duke Caboom from the previous installment. Other important voice cast members include Annie Potts, Wallace Shawn, Ernie Hudson, John Ratzenberger, and more.
Directed by Andrew Stanton, Toy Story 5 is set to hit theaters on June 19, 2026.
