Lightyear Star Chris Evans Teases “Epic Cinematic Experience” From Pixar

One of the most iconic characters in Pixar history is getting an origin story this summer. Captain America star Chris Evans is taking on the role of Space Ranger in Lightyear, which follows the adventure of the Buzz that the Toy Story action figure was based on. It’s a massive sci-fi epic designed to feel more like a 1970s blockbuster than another Toy Story film, and Pixar showed off some of the adventurous footage during the Disney CinemaCon panel on Wednesday.

ComicBook.com was in attendance for the presentation in Las Vegas, where Chris Evans introduced the Lightyear footage via a pre-recorded video. The Lightyear star talked about his love for the project and how excited he is for others to be able to see it.

“I can’t wait for my new movie, Disney and Pixar’s Lightyear, to land in your theaters this summer,” Evans said. “You’ll finally learn the story behind the toy that got to the hearts of audiences around the world and one of the biggest franchises of all time. This is an epic cinematic experience that has to be seen on the big screen. Thank you so much for your support. I can’t wait to see you all at the movies.”

Evans takes over the role of Buzz in Lightyear after the toy version of the character was voiced by Tim Allen for decades. The change in voice is just one signifier that this take on Buzz is different than the one you’re used to seeing on-screen.

“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.”

Disney and Pixar’s Lightyear arrives in theaters on June 17th.