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Explaining Lightyear 🚀
With the release of Lightyear today, we’re still seeing tons of people in comment sections getting confused about what exactly this movie is. Questions like why isn’t he a toy? and where’s Tim Allen? are constantly asked on posts about this new Pixar movie. As experts in all things Fandom, we wanted to answer some of your burning questions. And speculate wildly.
Why isn’t he a toy?
In Toy Story, Buzz (voiced by Tim Allen) discovers that he isn’t the ‘real’ Buzz Lightyear. He sees a commercial in Sid’s house that reveals he is just a toy. In Toy Story 2, Buzz meets hundreds of other Buzz Lightyear toys and we even see Rex playing the video game based on Buzz Lightyear. For years, we’ve all thought that Buzz Lightyear was a made-up character to sell toys & video games. Turns out, the Buzz we knew from Toy Story 1-4 was actually a toy based on a ‘real’ Buzz Lightyear movie character. Yes, we know Buzz Lightyear isn’t real in our world, but in the Toy Story world, there is a space explorer movie character named Buzz Lightyear that the toys are based on. This movie is about the ‘real’ Buzz from the fictional movie, not the ‘toy’ Buzz we've known for years.
Where’s Tim Allen?
Lightyear now makes it canon that the ‘real’ Buzz didn’t voice his own toys. Whoever manufactured the Buzz Lightyear toys in this universe got a different actor to give their best impression of ‘real’ movie Buzz, and that’s what we’ve been used to all these years. It would have been pretty simple to get Tim Allen to voice both Buzz’s, but that might have made things even more confusing. Or maybe there’s some behind the scenes reason he didn’t come back. We don’t know. All we know is that Tim Allen is not voicing the ‘real’ Buzz Lightyear in this movie.
Who voices Buzz?
When you think ‘daring, charismatic hero’, the choice was clear for who would voice the ‘real’ Buzz: Chris Evans. Fresh off his nearly decade long streak as Marvel’s Captain America, Chris Evans joined up with the Pixar team to provide the new voice of Buzz. He’s super excited to voice an animated character & to be honest we can’t see a better fit for him in the Pixar universe.
What’s the plot?
The trailers don't give too much away (which is always nice). We know that the Buzz in the movie wears his iconic spacesuit at some points. We see that there is a time travel aspect, though we don't know too much about that. We're also getting to see the Evil Emperor Zurg that the Zurg toys are based on. The trailer features a tease about the legendary 'To Infinity and Beyond' catchphrase, so we're also hoping to learn a bit more about where that came from. Overall, it just seems like a fun space adventure movie starring one of the most infamous space explorers to date.
Speculation: We’re guessing that at some point throughout the movie or in a post-credits scene, some of the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command TV show’s characters will make an appearance. I’m looking at you, Booster.
Is there a sequel?
Slow your roll, Cowboy. We have no idea. The movie hasn’t released yet so it would be pretty wild to have Lightyear 2 already announced. If the movie does well enough, nothing can stop Disney from making a sequel.
Speculation: Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll give us three Lightyear movies with a beautiful series ending and then a fourth that tarnishes the legacy. Or maybe I’m just bitter.
Where’s Woody?
At this point in the article, we hope it’s pretty obvious where Woody is – he’s not real. Well, currently. Knowing Disney, there’s always the possibility we get a ‘real’ Woody that the Woody’s Round Up toy was based on and hey, maybe ‘real’ Woody and ‘real’ Buzz know each other. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. For now, Woody remains a toy and this movie is just about the ‘real’ Buzz Lightyear and why he was so iconic that he deserved toys, video games and more. No Woody – for now.
Wild speculation: One day we will get Woody, the origin story of the wild-west cowboy that the Woody dolls are based on. The voice actor? You guessed it. Robert Downey Jr.