While audiences continue to be divided on the subject, star Patrick Warburton is excited about Chris Evans' Lightyear movie casting. Warburton previously took over the role of everyone's favorite Space Ranger from Tim Allen for the animated TV show Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. The series acted as a spinoff of the Toy Story franchise and was a fictionalized account of the eponymous in-universe astronaut and his adventures facing off against the villainous Emperor Zurg.
Lightyear acts an in-universe origin story for the character Allen's toy and Warburton's TV show is based on with Chris Evans taking on the part of Buzz for the film. The movie centers on Buzz as he tries to help his Space Ranger crew escape the alien planet he marooned them on, only to accidentally travel 62 years in the future and having to work with an inexperienced group of rookies to get back home and combat against Zurg. Lightyear has received generally favorable reviews from critics and one former star is eager to see the final product of the film.
While speaking exclusively with Screen Rant to discuss a special Days Inn ad campaign, Patrick Warburton opened up about Chris Evans' Lightyear movie casting. The actor, who voiced the Space Ranger for the early '00s TV show, praised the decision to cast Evans in the role, noting that while he hasn't seen the full film yet, he believes Evans to be "the perfect guy" for the part. See what Warburton shared below:
"Oh, fantastic. I like Chris, I worked with him a little bit on a film. I think he's just the perfect guy from what I've seen so far. I haven't seen the film, but I've seen clips, so personally, I like what he's doing. I think it's great.I think if Chris was going to talk to anybody, he would have talked to Tim. [Laughs] But I don't know, oftentimes, we don't do that. When I did Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, that was very different than the way Tim did it, but that's how those things play out I guess."
Evans' recasting for Lightyear was met with a mixed response from fans of the Toy Story franchise, with many throwing around a variety of theories for why Allen was shuffled out of the role in favor of the former Captain America actor. Director Angus MacLane has come out in defense of the recasting, believing that the film wouldn't have worked with Allen's version of Buzz as he was largely painted as the comic relief in the Toy Story movies, which was in contrast with the action hero approach he wanted to take for the film. Evans himself expressed feeling skepticism initially in taking over as Buzz for Lightyear, though listened to MacLane's pitch and came to understand the in-universe reason for why the voice would be different.
Though Warburton is in favor of the recasting for the film, Evans taking over in Lightyear seems to have negatively affected the film's box office performance, coming in second in its opening weekend behind Jurassic World Dominion with $50.6 million domestically. Original projections for the Toy Story spinoff had it clocking in at $70-85 million, potentially challenging Sonic the Hedgehog 2's successful opening, though with stiff competition from Universal's dinosaur franchise and the continued success of Top Gun: Maverick, the film struggled to launch off. Only time will tell if audiences come around to the film in the coming weeks with Lightyear now in theaters.