‘Lightyear’ Director Explains the Toy Story Spinoff’s Premise

Pixar and Disney have released the full official trailer to Lightyear, the film that tells the origin story of the popular Toy Story character. The trailer follows in the footsteps of the teaser, using David Bowie’s Starman as the main theme.

The trailer keeps the story under wraps, but reveals Buzz Lightyear to be a test pilot who has been training to go on a quick 4-minute flight. The trailer also reveals a robot that looks awfully similar to Lightyear’s arch nemesis, Evil Emperor Zurg.

Buzz Lightyear will be voiced by Chris Evans in the upcoming animation. However, Chris Evans isn’t replacing Tim Allen as the original voice actor and is instead playing a different version of the character.

The Buzz Lightyear origin film is not about the toy, who was voiced by Tim Allen, it’s about the man the toy was based on in the fictional world that Toy Story takes place. Basically, it’s about the fictional film that inspired the toy within the Toy Story universe. This may be a bit confusing to understand. Angus MacLane, the director of the animated movie, gives more context for the film in his own words.

“‘Set in the world of Toy Story is kind of weird. Another way to get at it, it’s a straightforward sci-fi action film about the Buzz Lightyear character. In the Toy Story universe, it would be like a movie that maybe Andy would have seen, that would have made him want a Buzz Lightyear figure.” – Angus MacLane

Chris Evans expressed a lot of excitement for the role in an Instagram post where he stated, “Animated movies were an enormous part of my childhood. They were my escape. My adventures. My dreams.” You can find the full Instagram post below.

 

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A post shared by Chris Evans (@chrisevans)

Along with Chris Evans, the movie will also feature the voices of Keke Palmer, Taika Waititi, James Brolin, and Efren Ramirez. Lightyear will be released in theaters on June 17th, 2022.