This week delivered the first teaser trailer for Lightyear, Pixar’s upcoming reimagining of one of their most beloved characters, Buzz Lightyear. Though a spinoff of the Toy Story franchise, it’ll focus on the “real” Buzz, how he goes from a novice test pilot to the most celebrated Space Ranger working for Star Command. In keeping with the switch, Tim Allen has been replaced in the role by Marvel icon Chris Evans.
The Lightyear trailer revealed our first proper look at the redesigned Buzz – who actually has hair, people! – and we can kind of see the resemblance to Evans. With this new movie looking more like a Star Wars or MCU flick than a traditional Toy Story film, fans are already comparing the new, improved Buzz with Evans’ Captain America. Sure enough, this epic mash-up fan art takes the space-faring hero and decks him out in Steve Rogers’ gear.
“Sure someone else did this, but I present Captain Lightyear,” Chris Elliopoulous captioned his artwork when he shared it on Twitter. Check it out via the tweet below:
The trailer definitely encouraged comparisons to Cap as Evans’ Buzz even borrowed a classic moment from the MCU. The teaser ended with Lightyear saying “To infinity and-“. This recalled Cap beginning to recite his own classic catchphrase – “Avengers A-” – at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron before it was likewise cut short.
Much about this film is still being kept under wraps – Evans is the only confirmed cast member at this stage – but what the trailer did promise was that it will be a visually stunning experience, reminding us just how far Pixar has come since the first Toy Story in 1995. Evans has called his casting as Buzz “a dream come true” as he’s been a fan since the beginning. Now he gets to embody the character for a whole new generation, just as he did with Captain America beforehand.
Lightyear lifts off – probably exclusively into theaters and not Disney Plus – on June 17, 2022.
