Decoy ‘Toy Story 5’ Version Hid Taylor Swift’s New Song From the Crew Until Last Week

The involvement of Taylor Swift in the Toy Story 5 soundtrack was kept so tightly controlled that a parallel version of the film was made without her song. Speaking at a SXSW London panel on Friday, visual effects supervisor Thomas Jordan said only “a very small group” on the production knew Swift had recorded “I Knew It, I Knew You” until last week. A cut without the track was shown to press and even to much of the Disney/Pixar staff.

“The crew that made Toy Story 5 did not know about this secret until last week,” Jordan said. The song came about after Swift, a self-described lifelong fan of the franchise, requested an early screening in February. She wrote the track immediately afterward, then offered it to the filmmakers. “She wrote the song and then asked us if we wanted it. And we said, ‘Uh, yes! Yes we do,’” Jordan recalled.

“I Knew It, I Knew You” was announced on June 1 and released June 5. Co-written and produced with Jack Antonoff, it marks their first collaboration since 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department and signals a return to Swift’s country roots. Director Andrew Stanton described the song as “deeply connected” to the film’s world, saying it “instantly felt like it had always belonged there, like a long-lost family member.” The stealth campaign underlines how tightly the project guarded its soundtrack, using a decoy to protect a song that was not a marketing afterthought but a piece written on an artist’s own impulse.