Just because Don Rickles is gone doesn’t mean that he won’t be in future Toy Story movies

The world is mourning the loss of Don Rickles, the sharply witty and warm comedic giant, who passed away this past Thursday at age 90. Part of that world includes Pixar Animation Studios since they got to work first hand with Rickles who voiced Mr. Potato Head since the first Toy Story film in 1995.

With “Toy Story 4” already beginning the early stages of production, many people were wondering if Rickles would have a part in the film. Much to our sadness, Mr. Potato Head was set to return in the fourth film, but didn’t record anything for it. According to The Hollywood Reporter who spoke to Rickles’ rep, he had yet to be called in to record his parts as Mr. Potato Head as the script was going through re-writes.

Fortunately for fans of the funny spud, we may still see him in the fourth and potentially other Toy Story films as well.

As with most recording sessions for animated films, talent usually records much more than what you hear in the final cut of the film. In fact, there is always much more recorded dialogue that ends up not being used that it might fit well into another film!

It’s a labor-intensive, technologically comprehensive technique that was used in a “Fast and the Furious” film to fill in for Paul Walker’s absence due to his untimely death and similarly to how the young Princess Leia sounded younger in “Rogue One.” There’s already talk that Carrie Fisher would also live on in future Star Wars films because of some of the excess shots that weren’t used for “The Force Awakens.”

There’s no official word from how Lucasfilm and Pixar will handle the losses in their future stories.