Chris Evans to play ‘original Buzz Lightyear’ in new Pixar movie

A new role for Chris Evans next summer is set to take the Sudbury native to infinity and beyond.

As part of Disney’s massive programming announcement on Thursday evening, the company announced that Evans would be voicing the “original Buzz Lightyear” in the upcoming Pixar movie “Lightyear,” which is slated to hit theaters June 17, 2022.

After Disney fans expressed confusion about what “the original Buzz Lightyear” meant,  given that Tim Allen had voiced the character in every “Toy Story” movie since 1995, Evans tweeted that he wouldn’t be playing “Buzz Lightyear the toy,” but instead would be voicing “the human Buzz Lightyear that the toy is based on.”

And just to be clear, this isn’t Buzz Lightyear the toy. This is the origin story of the human Buzz Lightyear that the toy is based on

— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) December 11, 2020

This only brought about more confusion, after which Evans tweeted a video from Pixar explaining the full pitch behind “Lightyear.”

“When we created the very first ‘Toy Story,’ we designed Buzz Lightyear with the idea that he was a toy based on some very cool character from an epic blockbuster film,” a Pixar employee said in the video. “Well, all these years later, we decided it’s time to make that film. ‘Lightyear’ is the definitive origin story of the original Buzz Lightyear, and it reveals how this young test pilot became the space ranger we all know him to be today.”