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Knives Out red carpet premiere at TIFF 2019

Source: Jaime Espinoza/WENN.com / WENN

Captain America’s Chris Evans is taking on the role of Buzz Lightyear in the new Pixar movie entitled Lightyear. The official teaser trailer was released today.

Evans’ role will be slightly different from the Buzz we remember from Toy Story. He’s playing “the original Buzz Lightyear.” Most fans were left unsure of what that might entail, but the short trailer dives into more of what that actually means.

Director Andy MacLane, who co-directed Finding Dory and multiple Toy Story shorts for Pixar, shared the inspiration behind the upcoming film with Entertainment Weekly.

“’Set in the world of Toy Story‘ is kind of weird. Another way to get at it, it’s a straightforward sci-fi action film about the Buzz Lightyear character,” MacLane, shares with EW over a Zoom call. “In the Toy Story universe, it would be like a movie that maybe Andy would have seen, that would have made him want a Buzz Lightyear figure.”

MacLane also clarifies that Lightyear is Buzz Lightyear’s personal story, and it has no direct affiliation with the Toy Storyfranchise.

“The movie doesn’t end and then you see Andy eating popcorn,” the filmmaker details. “This is its own thing… This is standalone. It’s the Buzz Lightyear movie. It’s that character but as the space ranger, not as the toy.”

Over the years, fans discovered few things about Buzz from the original Toy story Films, initially voiced by Tim Allen. The toy is based on the Buzz of a popular sci-fi franchise, a character who’s captain of the Universe Protection Unit of the Space Ranger corps from the Intergalactic Alliance.

“When you hear about the Buzz Lightyear of Toy Story talk about his space ranger-ness or Star Command, it’s very much a one-note amalgam of sci-fi cliches, which is the point of that movie,” MacLane illustrates. “If you were going to make that world real, you can’t have it constantly feeling like it’s this derivative thing.”

The central theme he discovered through all the films is that “Buzz has a disagreement over the nature of reality.” In Toy Story, Buzz believes himself to be a space ranger, while Woody knows he’s a toy

“So, for us, the core idea that we wanted to build upon was, how do you have a character out of step with the world around them,” MacLane continues with EW.

There are other surface level things that connect the new Buzz Lightyear to the original beloved character, such as the iconic space suit that appears in the trailer and the character’s popular catchphrase.

The trailer cuts Evans off before he finishes the famous “to infinity and beyond” line similar to Evans’ Captain America character from the Avengers films, which cut off his catchphrase, “Avengers, assemble!”

Fans should anticipate an epic sci-fi film in Lightyear. The trailer opens with Buzz locking into a rocket, powered by a mysterious crystallized energy source that allows him to shoot around the sun without getting burned.

According to MacLane, fans will see more from the mysterious energy source throughout the film. Get ready for a wild Buzz Lightyear ride.

Pixar’s Lightyear is set to premiere on June 17, 2022. Watch the teaser trailer below.