Lightyear Director Explains How Chris Evans' Film Connects to the Toy Story Movies

By Charlie Ridgely

Toy Story fans are going to see their favorite space ranger in a brand new light next year. Disney and Pixar's Lightyear is heading to theaters in 2022 and offers an up an origin story for the one and only Buzz Lightyear. The action figure in Toy Story is essentially based on an adventurous test pilot, so this new movie will explore who he really was, and how he got famous enough to warrant becoming the most popular action figure on the market.

While Buzz has always been a Toy Story character, Lightyear won't exactly be connected to the acclaimed Pixar franchise. It is obviously influenced by it, however. Angus MacLane, Lightyear's director, spoke with Fandango about the release of the first trailer this week, and explained how his movie came from the Toy Story saga.

"There's a core idea about Buzz that we noticed when we really drilled down looking at all of the Toy Story movies: That Buzz has a disagreement over the nature of reality," MacLane explained. "In the first Toy Story, he believes he's a space ranger when Woody says he's a toy. In the second movie, they had to bring in another Buzz Lightyear to kick jumpstart that again. And he had to convince his other self that HE was a toy. And there's Spanish Buzz in [Toy Story 3], and then the inner monologue in [Toy Story 4]. That was a bedrock for something we knew we needed to pay off."

"Buzz is somebody who takes his job very seriously, and is very much a rule follower," the director continued. "And has a steadfast belief in himself. There's these tropes of that kind of hero that we're recognizing, feeding on, and playing with. But he's such an amalgam of weird sci-fi cliches. How do you make that more than a punchline? That was really the charge of [the] film."

The idea that spawned Lightyear is all about who Buzz was, and why he always had to be so serious. This "real" take on the character, voiced by Chris Evans instead of Toy Story stalwart Tim Allen, is going to dive into the man beneath the helmet. Whether or not there are any more concrete connections to the world of Andy and his toys remains to be seen.

Are you looking forward to Disney and Pixar's Lightyear? Let us know in the comments!

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