Taylor Swift has released a new song tied to Toy Story 5, giving fans a fresh track called I Knew It I Knew You, ABC News reported. The release has generated considerable excitement ahead of the animated film's arrival in cinemas, and quickly became a talking point among both Swift's fans and followers of the long-running franchise.
According to the report, Swift wrote the song for the character Jessie, one of the franchise's best-known figures. The track is now streaming everywhere, and Toy Story 5 is due to reach theaters on June 19, giving the release an immediate tie-in with one of the year's biggest family films.
Swift marked the song's release on Instagram, where she said that creating it had been a new challenge while also feeling like second nature all at once. She added that she had written it with great adoration for the characters that, in her words, made audiences laugh and helped them learn lessons and think outside the backyard throughout their childhoods.
The way the song was kept under wraps has become a story in its own right. Pixar, the studio behind the franchise, released what was described as a decoy version of the movie, a deliberate move designed to preserve the surprise until the wider public could experience the track for themselves.
That meant members of the press and others given early screeners did not hear the Taylor Swift song at all. One ABC presenter recalled attending a screening around two and a half weeks earlier and hearing only a placeholder song, with no sign or mention of Swift's involvement in the film at that stage.
The genuine version of the film now includes the track, either in a new scene or in a sequence that had previously been scored differently. The unusual approach left even those who had already watched an early cut taken aback when the song was finally revealed alongside the rest of the audience.
Toy Story 5 is produced by Pixar, which is part of ABC's parent company, and the new song adds a high-profile musical element to one of the most anticipated releases of the year. When the film finally arrives in cinemas, audiences will hear the track in its intended place for the first time, after weeks of careful secrecy around its existence.