Taika Waititi declares himself to be the lead of Pixar's Lightyear, and Chris Evans hilariously supports him. Announced during Disney's Investor Day presentation in 2020, Lightyear is the latest movie to emerge from the beloved Toy Story franchise, though it is far from a conventional sequel. Instead of focusing on a toy, the movie tracks the origins of the person who inspired Buzz Lightyear, a space hero voiced by Evans. Lightyear, which is directed by Angus MacLane, is currently slated to arrive in theaters this June; it has the potential to be the first Pixar movie since early 2020 to get a theatrical run.
For some time, very little was known about Lightyear beyond Evans' involvement. However, following the release of the official Lightyear trailer, more information has arrived. Namely, Pixar finally unveiled the other high-profile members of the voice cast. In addition to Evans, Lightyear will feature the vocal talents of Keke Palmer, Dale Soules, James Brolin, Uzo Aduba, Isiah Whitlock Jr., and Peter Sohn. It'll also star Evans' fellow MCU alum Waititi, who is playing a yet-to-be-revealed character.
After the news of Waititi's involvement with Lightyear got out, the actor/writer/director took to social media to share the movie's trailer and jokingly flex his benevolence. "I'm the main star of this movie but I pulled rank and said the trailer should be more about the supporting characters like @ChrisEvans one, Bazz," Waititi wrote. Evans offered up the perfect response, which doesn't even dispute Waititi's claim. "In my eyes, you’re the main star of every movie whether you’re in them or not," he said in his retweet. It's so nice to see actors supporting other actors.
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Evans and Waititi are both major parts of the MCU, though they didn't get an opportunity to work together before Evans' departure from the franchise. One just has to hope Waititi and Evans will get to share scenes together, even if they didn't actually record their parts at the same time. Waititi remains a major creative force in the MCU as the director and co-writer of this summer's Thor: Love and Thunder; between that and Lightyear, he'll have quite a presence throughout the season. As for Evans, his next movie is The Gray Man, which is due out on Netflix later this year.
The Lightyear trailer didn't give many hints about who Waititi might be voicing, but it offered plenty of opportunities for fans to get a feel for Evans' iteration of the character. There was some surprise when he was cast in the role instead of Buzz's original voice actor, Tim Allen, but it's clear now that Lightyear is really putting its own spin on the character. At the same time, the movie is bound to have lots of Easter eggs referring to his Toy Story self, as seen through the Zurg seen in the trailer. For fans of Toy Story - or even just admirers of Evans and Waititi's work - Lightyear is not to be missed.
Source: Chris Evans/Twitter