Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures are collaborating on the upcoming computer-animated science-fiction action picture Lightyear. It’s a Toy Narrative spin-off that serves as an origin story for the fictional test pilot/astronaut who inspired the Buzz Lightyear toy featured in previous films. It’s presented as a film within a film that the Toy Story characters would watch.It will be Pixar’s 26th animated feature, and it will be released in RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, and IMAX formats on June 17, 2022.
The definitive origin story of Buzz Lightyear, the toy’s inspiration, Lightyear follows the famed Space Ranger after he and his commander are stranded on a hazardous planet 4.2 million light-years from Earth. Buzz is joined by a squad of ambitious recruits and his beautiful robot companion cat, Sox, as he tries to find a route back home via space and time. The entrance of Zurg, an imposing presence with an army of vicious robots and a mystery motive, complicates circumstances and threatens the mission.
Following the completion of Finding Dory, Angus MacLane was given the opportunity to pitch the idea of developing a Buzz Lightyear film, based on what movie Andy Davis would have seen in the original Toy Story to pique his interest in a Buzz Lightyear action figure. Since starting work at Pixar, MacLane had been drawn to the Lightyear character as a science fiction lover, feeling that the film’s story was very “personal” for him. Buzz’s debate over the nature of reality, combined with his heroic goals, created an amalgam of sci-fi clichés that MacLane sought to make more than simply a punchline in the Toy Story films that Lightyear examines.
Tim Allen indicated interest in doing another film in February 2019, saying that he “could not see any reason why they would not do it.” Tom Hanks stated on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in May that Toy Story 4 would be the final episode in the franchise, while producer Mark Nielsen hinted at the potential of a fifth picture, indicating that Pixar was not ruling it out.
Lightyear was announced as a spin-off film detailing the in-universe origin of the human Buzz Lightyear in December 2020 at a Disney Investor Day presentation, with Chris Evans providing the character’s voice.In March 2022, it was revealed that a scene depicting Alicia Hawthorne and another lady kissing was originally removed. The sequence was reinstated as a result of current Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s response to the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill and the internal outrage it produced within Disney.
When the project was announced in December 2020, Chris Evans was announced as the human Buzz Lightyear. Evans was MacLane’s first and only choice for Buzz. He went to Pixar’s offices and was pitched the project during his visit. Evans instantly accepted the offer, owing to his passion for animation. In November 2021, Taika Waititi was said to have been cast in an unnamed role.
To capture the sense of the sci-fi films MacLane grew up with, the animators wanted the picture to look “cinematic” and “chunky.” To do so, they asked a former employee of Industrial Light & Magic to make a spaceship model for them, which the animators used as inspiration; this technique was influenced by early sci-fi film designers who used models as inspiration for their sets and props.
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures will release Lightyear in RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, and IMAX formats in theatres in the United States on June 17, 2022. It will be Pixar’s first theatrical release in two years, following the direct-to-streaming of Soul, Luca, and Turning Red on Disney+ in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.