Lightyear: How Chris Evans Went to Infinity and Beyond (Exclusive)

In 1995, Pixar introduced the world to Buzz Lightyear in the hit Toy Story movie. The film spawned three follow-up films, concluding with Toy Story 4 in 2019. As the story goes, Buzz Lightyear was Andy’s favorite toy in those Toy Story movies with Tim Allen voicing the toy-version of the character which would come to life each time the human was not around. Now, through the Lightyear movie, the movie which Andy loved so much is being shared in our world as Captain America actor Chris Evans voices the titular hero on a galactic adventure which informs a new perspective on the Toy Story movies’ toy version of the character. 

Not unlike the character we will see in Lightyear, Toy Story‘s Buzz was confident in himself and determined to complete missions. At the time, it was simply part of the who the character was and the audience accepted the traits. Now, Lightyear is set to show us exactly why the toy carried himself as he did with the beliefs in his own abilities which sometimes seemed to be unbelievable. 

“Well I think anytime someone has to have a little fall from grace and kind of accept responsibility for mistakes and in that acceptance recognize that you don’t have to be defined by those mistakes and, and that’s what allows growth,” Evans told ComicBook.com about Buzz’s journey in Lightyear. “So, you meet a Buzz in the beginning who is, you know, determined and then a leader and the reason we all love him. But you also get to see him metabolize some humility into some growth.”

Evans is no stranger to big adventure films, which is exactly what Lightyear sets out to be. Some may know him from Knives Out or Snowpiercer but he is synonymous with his Marvel role as Captain America. Marvel, by the way, is synonymous with keeping secrets from the audience and sometimes from its stars. In the case of Lightyear, Evans was given the entire story of Pixar’s latest adventure when the mission began. “They gave me the whole thing, but it certainly went under a lot of changes,” Evans revealed. “I mean, I don’t wanna share too much cause I don’t want to kind of, you know, show the sausage is made, but certainly the original script is very different from what the final product was.”

Evans earns quite a bit of love from his director Angus MacLane for how quickly he found the perfect voice for Buzz. It happened, “right away,” the director recalled. “It was like, ‘This is gonna work.’ The thing that surprised me was his ability to do on the fly ADR action, which is basically watching a whole scene and then just performing the grunts and the action noises from it.” In fact, thee acting skill was not the only thing the creative team was impressed by with the Avengers star. “Because he’s so gregarious and so friendly, you forget, and you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re really, really good at this because he’s so charming,’” MacLane added. “But when push comes to shove his technical prowess as an actor is incredible.”

Much of the other cast members, they didn’t get much time to experience Evans’ skill set and charm. “Well, unfortunately you don’t really work with anybody you’re in your own booth,” Evans said. “I only met [Peter Sohn] yesterday at the premiere. So, when you’re doing these films, you’re alone in a sound booth and you have you and the director. And so you’re working with him, but I mean, I met Keke [Palmer] yesterday for the first time. Most of these actors, James Brolin, and I met them all yesterday at the premiere for the first time.” It’s an impressive system animated films have down, which in Pixar’s case calls for directors like MacLane to sometimes lay down scratch audio and voice characters themselves to help cast members get through laying down their own voices for their characters.

When it comes to the future, Evans is ready for the long haul with Buzz Lightyear. Should a sequel opportunity present another trip to infinity and beyond, the actor is game. “I mean, listen, anything to keep me in, like the Disney / Pixar family I’ll do it,” Evans concluded.

Are you excited for Lightyear? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Twitter! ComicBook.com’s full interview with Evans can be seen in the video above. Lightyear opens in theaters on June 17.