Lightyear reunited the audience with Buzz Lightyear but in a very different way than in the Toy Story movies, and it left a couple of unanswered questions about his origins and the connection between Lightyear’s Buzz and the one in Toy Story. Pixar continues bringing at least one movie per year, and 2022 saw the release of two movies: Turning Red, which was released directly on Disney+, and Lightyear, the first Pixar movie to be released in theaters since Onward, and which took the audience back to the Toy Story universe.
Lightyear follows Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Chris Evans) as he explores a habitable planet with his commanding officer, Alisha Hawthorne (Uzo Aduba), and his crew, but after some dangerous encounters with the planet’s hostile lifeforms and their ship breaking down, they end up stranded there. In order to find a way back home, Buzz volunteers as a test pilot, but all those attempts lead him to jump many years into the future, where he meets a whole new crew, including Alisha’s granddaughter, Izzy (Keke Palmer), and he comes face to face with the evil Emperor Zurg (James Brolin), who hides a big secret.
After a lot of confusion over how Lightyear fits into the Toy Story timeline, the opening card cleared all this up by explaining this is the movie a young Andy watched in 1995 that made him a fan of Buzz Lightyear, thus leading to the events of the Toy Story saga. Although it’s a movie separate from the Toy Story series, Lightyear included various references to those movies, but it also made way for various questions about Lightyear’s Buzz and his toy version, as there are a couple of details that don’t match.
Why Did Toy Buzz Come From Gamma Quadrant of Sector Four?
When Buzz Lightyear made his debut in the first Toy Story movie, he shook things up in Andy’s room as he wasn’t aware that he's a toy and insisted that he was a real Space Ranger. Buzz was convinced that he had crashed on a different “planet” while on his way to protect the galaxy from the invasion of Zurg, and when asked about where he comes from by the other toys, he said he was “stationed up in the Gamma Quadrant of Sector Four”. If toy Buzz is based on Lightyear’s Buzz, this line doesn’t make much sense as at the end of Lightyear, Buzz and his crew are just heading towards a signal in the Gamma Quadrant of Sector Four, so he’s definitely not stationed there – or, at least, not yet.
What’s Buzz Lightyear’s Real Unit?
In the same speech from Toy Story mentioned above, Buzz says he’s a member of the elite Universe Protection Unit of the Space Ranger Corps. This also raised some questions about the connection between movie Buzz and toy Buzz as at the end of Lightyear, the former helped found the Universe Protection Division and became the leader of it, bringing his crew with him on new missions. This, along with the above question about the Gamma Quadrant of Sector Four, makes toy Buzz’s story even more confusing, as if he was already stationed in the Gamma Quadrant of Sector Four, he should be part of the Universe Protection Division, rather than the Universe Protection Unit, and if he was part of the latter, he wouldn’t be in Sector Four.
How Could Zurg Be Buzz’s Father In Toy Story 2?
Lightyear arrived with a twist involving Emperor Zurg and Buzz himself. After being captured by Zurg, Buzz (and the audience) learned that the Emperor is actually an older version of Buzz from another timeline who turned evil and now wanted to go back in time (in Buzz’s timeline) to retrieve additional fuel for another hyperspace jump so he could prevent the Star Command unit from landing on T’Kani Prime, the planet where Buzz and his crew were stranded. Now, toy Buzz was aware of his backstory as a Space Ranger, so toy Zurg should have been too, meaning that the reveal in Toy Story 2 of Zurg being Buzz’s father (a nod to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back) doesn't fit. In addition to that, Toy Story 2 also revealed that Buzz thought Zurg had killed his father, so their encounter in Lightyear, Zurg’s mission, and his real identity make no sense.
Why Wasn't Sox A Toy In Toy Story?
Surely, Buzz is the star of Lightyear and it makes sense that thousands of toys based on him were made, but there’s one character that also deserved a toy: Sox. Buzz’s robot cat companion won the audience over and is one of the best characters in Lightyear, and if this is the movie that prompted Andy to want a Buzz Lightyear action figure, there must have also been a lot of interest in toys based on Sox – and yet, not one Sox figure was seen in the Toy Story saga. Director Angus MacLane answered this during a press conference (via DigitalSpy), saying that Sox toys were sold out, so Andy’s mom couldn’t get him one, and it became a very expensive toy. Of course, that doesn’t really answer the question of why there wasn’t a Sox toy in Toy Story, as well as toys of the rest of the crew.
Why Is Buzz’s Personality Different In Toy Story & Lightyear?
Toy Buzz was inspired by movie Buzz, but they have different personalities. The Buzz the audience met in Toy Story is more comedic even when he believed he was a real Space Ranger, and he became goofier as the Toy Story series evolved, while Lightyear’s Buzz was more serious and focused on his missions. Both versions are protective of those close to them, but it does seem odd that toy Buzz’s personality is different from the one of the man that inspired it.
Was Lightyear A Flop In Toy Story's Universe?
Andy became a big fan of Buzz Lightyear after watching Lightyear, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the movie was a success in the Toy Story universe. A theory suggests Toy Story 2 showed that Lightyear was a flop, which is why Al’s Toy Barn had a bunch of Buzz Lightyear toys, as they weren’t selling well. The theory has already been challenged by other details in Toy Story 2 that can explain why Al had so many Buzz Lightyear toys, such as Barbie’s line about “shortsighted retailers did not order enough dolls to meet demand” in 1995, the action figures in Toy Story 2 having a new utility belt, and all those toys simply being a new shipment. Still, Andy being a fan of Buzz and getting all the merch he could doesn’t really confirm that Lightyear was a hit in the Toy Story universe.
Is Toy Buzz Really Based On Lightyear’s Buzz?
All the above questions and inconsistencies have led to the big question about whether Toy Story’s Buzz was really based on Lightyear’s Buzz or on the Space Ranger from a sequel or other media. Details like Sector 4, Zurg’s real identity, and the unit Buzz is part of make the “toy Buzz was based on movie Buzz” argument confusing as they don’t fit with that idea but it wouldn’t make much sense if the toy was based on a sequel, either.
Will Lightyear 2 Happen?
At the end of Lightyear, Buzz and his new crew (including Sox, of course) set out on a new adventure in the Gamma Quadrant of Sector Four, thus leaving the door open for more on-screen adventures. However, Lightyear was a box-office bomb and it received mixed reviews from critics, so taking that into account, a sequel might not happen even if the first movie set it up. That doesn’t mean it’s the end for Buzz Lightyear and the Toy Story universe, as Toy Story 5 could still happen at some point as well as other spinoff movies from this universe, but it all depends on how Pixar sees the underperformance of Lightyear.