Chris Evans will star as Buzz Lightyear in the upcoming Pixar film Lightyear. But not the toy Buzz Lightyear — the “real” guy. It’s a bit of a mind-bender.
Welcome, one and all! If you haven’t yet heard the news, brace yourself: Chris Evans will be voicing the one and only Buzz Lightyear in an upcoming Pixar flick titled Lightyear. This is a pretty unexpected turn of events, but not an unwelcome one! Chris Evans was an amazing Captain America and he has proved his acting prowess time and time again in movies like Knives Out, Not Another Teen Movie, Fantastic Four and Gifted.
Most of us know Buzz Lightyear as Andy’s toy from Toy Story, voiced by Tim Allen. But the new movie is something different. Announcing the film in Disney’s massive content showcase yesterday, Pixar head honcho Pete Docter explained that it was always their thinking that the toy Buzz Lightyear was inspired by an epic sci-fi action movie. Lightyear is that movie.
That can be a little confusing to get your head around. Chris Evans himself tried to clear things up on Twitter, saying he’ll be playing the “human Buzz Lightyear that the toy is based on”:
And just to be clear, this isn’t Buzz Lightyear the toy. This is the origin story of the human Buzz Lightyear that the toy is based on
— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) December 11, 2020
Of course, “human Buzz Lightyear” could imply that Buzz Lightyear was a real person in the Toy Story universe and not a fictional character, so there’s still some ambiguity to work through. We’re betting it’s the latter, though.
The toy Buzz Lightyear says he’s a Space Ranger determined to protect the galaxy from the Evil Emperor Zurg, so we assume the movie will deal with that. Disney gave us the tiniest little look at what to expect during its presentation:
I’m definitely intrigued by this film. Chris Evans is amazing in everything he appears in, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this movie is another slam dunk for him.
I thought that maybe we as a society had reached the end of the Toy Story film franchise, but I guess I was wrong! I hope to see plenty of Toy Story references in Lightyear.
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