Toy Story 4 will still feature Don Rickles thanks to years-old audio recordings

Don Rickles' iconic voice won't be missing from Toy Story 4 after all — and as it turns out, some of his dialogue may be decades old.

When the legendary comedian died in April 2017, it remained unclear how the upcoming Toy Story sequel would handle his absence. Rickles voiced Mr. Potato Head in all three previous Toy Story films, and The Hollywood Reporter confirmed in 2017 that he hadn't yet recorded any of his dialogue for the fourth installment prior to his death.

But director Josh Cooley confirmed to Entertainment Weekly on Thursday that Rickles is actually still in the new movie, as Pixar was able to make use of old recordings of him. "But we went through, jeez, 25 years of everything we didn’t use for Toy Story 1, 2, 3, the theme parks, the ice capades, the video games — everything that he's recorded for Mr. Potato Head," Cooley said. "And we were able to do that."

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Weirdly, this will make Toy Story 4 the first of two Disney sequels this year in which an actor will appear posthumously thanks to the use of old recordings. There's also Star Wars: Episode IX, which will feature the late Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa even though she died in December 2016. Like with Toy Story, this is thanks to Lucasfilm repurposing old footage of Fisher originally shot for 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Both instances should provide a nice way for fans to say goodbye to the beloved actors, and in each case, the family signed off on the decision. Cooley told Entertainment Weekly that Rickles' family, in fact, were the ones to reach out and see if there was any way he could somehow still remain in the film after his death. He explained, "I'm so very honored that they asked us to do that, and I'm very honored that he's in the film."