Chris Evans Compares Buzz Lightyear to Captain America

Pixar and Disney recently brought beloved Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear back to the big screen, showing fans around the world a different side of the character they first met in Toy Story. Lightyear is essentially the sci-fi movie that inspired the toy that Andy got for his birthday all those years ago. Instead of just a toy, this version is a full-on action hero, with longtime Captain America star Chris Evans providing his voice. 

As it turns out, Captain America and the hero Buzz Lightyear actually have a good bit in common. On a recent episode of the D23 Inside Disney Podcast, Evans opened up about the similarities between his two characters.

"Well, I mean they certainly both are leaders. They're both determined and selfless and honest and loyal to their friends," Evans said. "Buzz strikes me as someone who probably knew this about himself very early on in life, you know, I imagine Buzz was probably the hall monitor and the boy scout and class president and just always very confident in his life choices. Cap probably took a bit longer to understand his role in life and how to fulfill what he had inside and there was probably more timidity and humility and uncertainty in Cap."

While Tim Allen voiced the toy version of Buzz Lightyear for decades, the filmmakers behind Pixar's latest thought the "real" version of the character needed to sound a little different. 

"Because he's a side character in Toy Story, we were going to try to figure out how to pour it into a main character, but we needed to keep a certain aesthetic, a certain sensibility to his lantern jawed squareness, but do it in a way that felt like it was motivated by something," Lightyear director Angus MacLane told ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview. "That we spent maybe more time on trying to cause otherwise. We found pretty quickly if you watch Toy Story again, you imagine a whole movie [with that Buzz], which is the guy going, 'Well, I'm going over here. Look, I'm going over there. Oh no, look, monsters!' You get tired of that pretty quickly. And so the idea, some of the revelations of how we were able to thread that needle and making it more well rounded character were essential to maintaining a feature."

Lightyear is now playing in theaters.