Chris Evans Reveals The Toughest Part About Playing Buzz Lightyear
While Tim Allen voices Star Command space ranger toy Buzz Lightyear across the four "Toy Story" movies, Chris Evans is taking a new spin on the character as the titular hero in Pixar's upcoming movie "Lightyear" from director Angus MacLane. The film stars Evans as the character that inspires the toy popularized within the "Toy Story" franchise; MacLane told Fandango in October 2021 that the intention was to make the movie that Andy from "Toy Story" would have seen to make him want a Buzz Lightyear toy in the first place.
The film's second trailer shows Buzz stranded on a remote planet when he conducts a test flight through space that accidentally sends him 62 years, seven months, and five days into the future — and straight into a conflict with Emperor Zurg, who goes on to become the Buzz Lightyear toy's nemesis. This makes "Lightyear" something of a meta movie within Pixar's already loosely connected universe; while it's an origin story for the character, "Lightyear" is not intended to be interpreted as a real story that happens within the "Toy Story" universe.
Of course, while jumping into a new entry in a beloved franchise had to be exciting for Evans, there was at least one difficulty for the actor to overcome when it came to voicing Buzz for the new movie.
Chris Evans said it's hard to avoid a shameless Tim Allen impression
In an interview with Variety at the world premiere of "Lightyear," Chris Evans said that it was initially tough to avoid sliding into a Tim Allen impression when voicing Buzz Lightyear for the movie: "I mean, the first time you have to do that iconic line, 'To infinity and beyond,' you just do a shameless Tim Allen impression because it's intimidating."
Allen's iconic Buzz Lightyear voice was not the only familiar vocal cadence Evans needed to work around for the movie — this version of the character also needed to stand out from Evans' best-known role: Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Evans said that "Lightyear" director Angus MacLane and the rest of Pixar's production team were highly collaborative and helped create an environment where Evans felt comfortable finding his own interpretation of Buzz Lightyear's voice — while keeping Allen's vocal touches as the character's blueprint, of course.
With "Lightyear" set to premiere in movie theaters across the country on June 17, Evans was unsurprisingly asked which "Toy Story" character he'd like to see get a solo movie next, if any. While there aren't any known plans for more "Toy Story" sequels or spin-offs in the works, Evans said he's a major Woody fan and wouldn't mind seeing the character get something of an origin story too.