Taylor Swift Asked Pixar, “Did You Guys Replace Me?” Before Writing the Toy Story 5 Song

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Taylor Swift got the call to write for Toy Story 5, then spent months trying to figure out who she was bumping. At a Q&A with director Andrew Stanton after a special screening on Sunday (Nov. 1), she explained why “I Knew It, I Knew You” almost didn’t happen, Billboard reports. When her involvement was announced in June, fans were thrilled, and some were puzzled why the job didn’t go to Randy Newman, who has written the franchise’s music since 1995.

Stanton said she was never one of several options. He had wanted to change things up from the start and had only Swift in mind to follow Newman. “Nothing else made sense,” he told the crowd. When she was unavailable during the Eras Tour, he refused to call anyone else and decided the film would have no original end-credits song. Swift said she did not believe that when she finally had time.

I was repeatedly asking, ‘I know that it took me a couple months to come back to this project. Be honest: Did you guys replace me?’

Taylor Swift, at the screening Q&A (Nov. 1), Billboard

She added that she did not want to take anyone’s place: “‘I understand, but I’m not in the business of doing that.’” The song itself came together in hours. As Swift has said before, she saw an early screening, went straight to the studio with Jack Antonoff and finished it before the day was over, then performed it with Newman at the film’s Hollywood premiere. Stanton recalled hearing it a few days later. “I got choked up when I heard it,” he said, comparing it to the first time Newman played him “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” on piano.

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Her route to the film was a family matter. “My brother does all my music synchs,” Swift said, and Austin Swift is the one who told her she needed to see Toy Story 5, though he had signed an NDA and couldn’t say why. The film then reminded her of her own friendship with Abigail Anderson, whom she met when she moved to Nashville at 14. Hear the song below.

The song has had a long run. “I Knew It, I Knew You” came out June 5, two weeks before the film opened, and debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 dated June 20, leading for two weeks. It spent all of September in the top 10 with 40.5 million U.S. streams, per Luminate, and sits at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Movie Songs chart for a fourth straight month, Billboard says.

It is also now an awards-season song. Billboard says her campaign for a nomination has already included the Academy Museum gala performance in mid-October and a Grammys Icon Session in August. We laid out the field in our Best Original Song explainer.

Added to the High Grailed archive on November 10, 2026.