Swifties, it’s happening again. Our Lord and saviour Taylor Swift has officially sent fans into overdrive with countless Easter eggs hinting at her potential involvement in the upcoming Pixar film, Toy Story 5.
You see, the rumours that Taylor was somehow involved in the movie first began in April when a mysterious 48-hour countdown clock appeared on her official website. The countdown, which featured a blue and white cloud background, was taken down after roughly 10 minutes, but it was long enough to convince fans that the pop superstar had either landed a voice role or written a song for the latest Toy Story sequel.
Other clues at the time included the fact that a similar cloud background was used in Taylor’s music video for “Opalite”, and she had recently been spotted wearing a blue and white striped dress with red heels and a yellow handbag that perfectly matched the Toy Story aesthetic.
Adding to the rumours was the fact that the fifth instalment of the beloved film series is set to be released on June 19, 2026 — which also marks 20 years since Taylor released her debut single “Tim McGraw”. Coincidence? Those don’t exist in the Taylor Swift fandom.
The latest clues that prove I’m not going insane
Sure, you might think that a website glitch and a coincidental date aren’t the strongest pieces of evidence, but the case was blown wide open over the weekend when a series of cryptic billboards popped up around the world.
Not only did they display the initials TS (for both Toy Story and Taylor Swift, of course), but they also featured exactly 13 clouds — a numerical detail that’s long been associated with the musician.
Pixar only added fuel to the fire when they posted a social media video of Jessie dancing on one of the billboards alongside a “Shake It Off”-inspired caption.
“She’s making those moves up as she goes!” the insanely clever social media team wrote.
Interestingly, Variety reported that representatives for both Disney and Taylor Swift “had no comment when asked about the billboards”.
The Apple Music Easter eggs we can’t ignore
No, that’s not all! If you search “Taylor Swift” on TikTok, a bunch of white clouds pop up on screen.
The “Cruel Summer” hitmaker has also updated her Essentials playlist on Apple Music to only include the fifth song from each of her albums, and the lyrics have been edited so every ‘T’ and ‘S’ is capitalised.
The cover art for 1989 (Taylor’s Version) has also been edited, with the iconic seagulls being replaced by clouds, and the animated cover for the original version of 1989 now has a yellow title with a blue outline.
On top of that, Apple Music has updated its social media bio to capitalise every ‘T’ and ‘S’, and posted an Instagram Story overnight encouraging fans to listen to Taylor’s Essentials playlist.
Toy Story director responds to rumours
Although Taylor herself has yet to acknowledge the rumours, the film’s director, Andrew Stanton, was asked about the speculation in a recent interview and gave a very cheeky answer.
“The sad truth is we watched the movie being mixed last week, and the song on the end of that was not Taylor Swift’s song,” he told content creator Shivani Khosla.
Now, just because she’s missing from the end credits, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a voice role or a song somewhere else in the film.
Did Taylor already reveal the song’s structure?
So, what would a Taylor Swift song in a Toy Story film sound like? Many fans think she already dropped a major hint during an interview with The New York Times in April when she talked about her favourite way to write songs.
“A hypothetical structure would be: first verse, a little girl learns a lesson that, in the chorus, her mum teaches her about. Then the little girl grows up, and now she’s a teenager, and she realises, ‘Oh my god, my mom was right about this’,” she detailed.
“Now, the second time you hear the hook, that same hook means something a little bit different, because she’s grown up in her life. Then the bridge, maybe she goes on in her life. She has a little girl. She imparts that wisdom to her. And then, if you really want to get me to cry, bring back that same first line of the song and end the song with it.”
If that does turn out to be the song (and it’s played over a heartbreaking montage similar to Jessie’s origin story in the second film), then they should just give Taylor the Oscar now.
What else could this all mean?
Taylor’s involvement on the film’s soundtrack wouldn’t be too much of a surprise, considering she’s also provided soundtrack songs for Hannah Montana: The Movie, Valentine’s Day, The Hunger Games, One Chance, Fifty Shades Darker, Cats and Where the Crawdads Sing.
Meanwhile, other fans have speculated that Taylor isn’t actually involved with Toy Story 5 at all, but instead wrote and directed a short film that will play in cinemas beforehand. Typically, Pixar’s feature films are shown in cinemas alongside an original short film, although recent shorts have debuted exclusively on Disney+.
Toy Story 5 is set to hit cinemas in just a few weeks, so we’ll definitely get an answer soon on what all these easter eggs mean. And hey, if Taylor isn’t involved in the film at all, you can just listen to “Cowboy Like Me” and “My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys” on the way home from the cinema.
