Despite the passing of Carl Weathers last year, his Toy Story character Combat Carl will return for Toy Story 5. Deadline reports that Ghostbusters star Ernie Hudson will step in for Weathers in the upcoming Pixar sequel. Toy Story 5 is set to hit theaters on June 19, 2026.

The military action figure Combat Carl was a loving takeoff on Weathers‘ many action roles, from Predator to Action Jackson to Force 10 From Navarone. However, Hudson is no stranger to action himself; his most iconic role is the blue-collar Ghostbuster Winston Zeddemore, which he played in both original Ghostbusters movies and their two latter-day sequels. He has also starred in the high-octane actioners Leviathan, The Crow, Congo, and The Substitute. Hudson is an experienced voice actor, as well; he voiced Cyborg in The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians in the 1980s, and has gone on to provide voices for Transformers: Prime, Infinity Train, and Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Ironically, the one animated role he didn’t play is Winston Zeddemore: he auditioned for the part on The Real Ghostbusters, but Arsenio Hall got the role, instead.

Who Is Combat Carl?

Introduced in the 2013 Halloween special Toy Story of Terror!, Combat Carl is a G.I. Joe-like action figure who invariably refers to himself in the third person. He and a smaller-scale Combat Carl (voiced by a pitched-up Weathers and referred to as Combat Carl Jr.) are residents of a motel, where they were stolen by the manager’s trained pet iguana to be sold on the internet. Both Carls escaped, living secretly in the motel until they met Jessie (Joan Cusack), helping her and her friends escape the manager. Combat Carl reappeared in Toy Story 4, assisting Bo Peep (Annie Potts). Weathers also voiced the character in a bonus feature Toy Story of Terror‘s DVD release, a mock public service announcement mocking similar segments from the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero cartoon series of the 1980s.

via Collider