Buzz Lightyear is officially set to return to our screens in an origin story movie in 2022.

Pixar made the big announcement only recently, where they confirmed that childhood fave space ranger, Buzz Lightyear is receiving an origin story movie. And it’s called Lightyear.

It hasn’t been too long since Buzz Lightyear returned to the silver screen, with the release of Toy Story 4 in 2019. But, it has been a little while since he’s taken centre stage, after all, in that fourth instalment it was all about Forky, the perpetual existential crisis living spork.

To digress ever just slightly, let’s take a look back at the last time that Buzz Lightyear was the main character of a film or TV show.

That brings us to the Toy Story spinoff TV show: Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, which aired in 2000, as well as the correlating movie: Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins – which you may or may not have owned on DVD or VHS.

You’d recall that Buzz was obviously the main character in those animations, but the storyline was never about how he came to be.

But fast forward to 2022, we’re finally receiving the backstory, or the context behind one of the characters, of one of the most nostalgic children’s franchises of all time, with Deadline reporting that Lightyear will show us how the young test pilot becomes the legendary Buzz Lightyear action figure.

Love Film & TV?

Get the latest Film & TV news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more

While the news of the origin movie is still super fresh, we know that Chris Evans, most recently famed for his work on The Avengers franchise is set to voice Buzz, taking over Tim Allen, who voiced Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story films.

Deadline have also reported that the co-director of Finding Dory, Angus MacLane, will be directing Lightyear origin story movie.

Pixar have announced that Lightyear is set to release in cinemas on  June 17, 2022. In the mean time we’ll wait patiently for the trailer.

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine