On Tuesday, Pixar dropped the first trailer for its, ahem, buzzy new film Lightyear. Starring Chris Evans as the titular hero, the film is a prequel of sorts about Toy Story’s beloved himbo astronaut, Buzz Lightyear.
Lightyear is directed by Angus MacLane, who has worked on the animation teams of such iconic Pixar films as The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, and two Toy Story sequels. In addition to Evans, the new film will feature the voices of Keke Palmer, Taika Waititi, Uzo Aduba, and James Brolin.
The two-minute teaser has a surprisingly cinematic and realistic sci-fi feel, set dramatically to David Bowie’s “Starman.” Evans sets the scene for an adventure, saying in a voiceover, “After a full year of being marooned on this planet, our first test flight is a go. Let’s get everyone home.” The ensuing rescue mission promises high-speed rocket launches, encounters with giant robots, and what appears to be a green-tentacled alien.
And because it’s a Pixar movie, Buzz of course has an adorable talking animal sidekick. Enter: Sox the robot cat. Played by Peter Sohn, an animator who has lent his voice to characters in Up and Ratatouille, Sox will most definitely be the primary source of comic relief here.
The trailer does not, however, demystify the confusion that erupted when Lightyear was first announced about how this film fits into the bigger Toy Story universe. (Clearly, this Buzz Lightyear is a living human man and not a toy.)
In December 2020, Evans retweeted a teaser for Lightyear with the caption, “I don’t even have the words.” He proceeded to promptly find the words, following up with, “And just to be clear, this isn’t Buzz Lightyear the toy. This is the origin story of the human Buzz Lightyear that the toy is based on.”
But his tweet didn’t clear things up the way Evans hoped it would. We all know Buzz Lightyear is a fictional character voiced by Tim Allen, and not a real person. Is he saying that in the Toy Story universe, with Woody and Andy and Pizza Planet, they had Buzz instead of Neil Armstrong? Is this a movie-inside-a-movie situation where Buzz is not meant to be a real historical figure who actually lived, but rather a character in a fake live-action movie that they made toys based on? And most pressing: When is all of this supposed to be taking place?
We’ll find out when Lightyear hits theaters on June 17.
