Disney and Pixar are framing this as a magical surprise gift for fans — Taylor Swift, a lifelong Toy Story devotee who grew up watching the franchise since age five, was so moved by an early screening that she wrote 'I Knew It, I Knew You' overnight and personally asked if they wanted it. Pure kismet.
The level of compartmentalization required to keep this under wraps is almost absurd. An entire alternate version of Toy Story 5 was edited without Swift's contribution, shown to press and Disney/Pixar employees — and the actual crew making the film didn't know until LAST WEEK. Someone had to live with that secret for months.
"The crew that made Toy Story 5 did not know about this secret until last week," VFX supervisor Thomas Jordan said at SXSW London panel on June 6, per Variety. The song "I Knew It, I Knew You" was announced June 1 and released June 5 — Taylor saw the film in February, wrote the track immediately after that screening.
The fact that Disney built an entire decoy cut of Toy Story 5 to protect this secret tells you everything about how massive Swift's involvement is — and how terrified they were of a leak. Four months of silence takes serious discipline from a lot of people.
Disney went to absolutely insane lengths to keep Taylor Swift's Toy Story 5 contribution under wraps, and the details emerging are almost hard to believe. VFX supervisor Thomas Jordan dropped the bombshell Friday at an SXSW London panel: a "decoy version" of Toy Story 5 was created specifically to hide Swift's involvement. According to Jordan (via Variety), only "a very small group" working on the movie knew that Swift had recorded "I Knew It, I Know You" — and that sanitized version without her track was shown to press and Disney/Pixar staffers during early previews.
"The crew that made Toy Story 5 did not know about this secret until last week," Jordan revealed. Let that sink in for a moment. The actual artists, animators, and technicians who brought Woody, Buzz, and the gang to life on screen had zero idea one of the biggest pop stars on the planet had already contributed to the project — and had been sitting on it since February.
The timeline is wild when you piece it together. Taylor saw an early version of Toy Story 5 in February, was apparently moved enough to request a viewing before the film was finished, wrote "I Knew It, I Know You" immediately after that screening, then asked Pixar if they wanted to use it. Their response?
"Uh, yes! Yes we do." From that moment on, everyone involved had to keep their mouths completely shut — and apparently some people didn't even know enough to need convincing. Toy Story 5 director Andrew Stanton released a statement praising Swift's connection to the material: "Her connection to Jessie and the immediate way she understood what the character was going through was undeniable.
The song is so deeply connected to Toy Story. So much so that on first listen, it instantly felt like it had always belonged there." Swift co-wrote and produced the track with her frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff — their first joint project since 2024's The Tortured Poets Department. "I Knew It, I Know You," which sees Swift returning to her country roots, was officially announced June 1 and dropped June 5.
