Disney and Pixar have debuted a new trailer for the upcoming Toy Story spinoff, Lightyear. Featuring Chris Evans as the voice of the titular space ranger, the film tells the origin story of the character who’d go on to inspire the iconic action figure in the Toy Story franchise.
The new trailer—the first one was released in February—highlights the adventurous tone of the film, which introduces Buzz Lightyear as a heroic captain who is marooned on a hostile planet 4.2 million light-years from Earth alongside his commander and their crew. Immediately, the character’s earnestness stands out, as he narrates a log to nobody in particular, despite being made fun of.
Buzz reveals that “after a full year” of being marooned on the planet, there is finally a glimmer of hope—a hyper-speed test flight that could be his team's ticket out of there. But things go wrong almost immediately, when Buzz finds himself lost in space, stranded on a mysterious new world. He discovers that he has traveled through time, and meets aliens, robots and a ragtag rebel crew.
Fans of the Toy Story franchise will recognize the main antagonist, Emperor Zurg, who was occasionally seen and mentioned in the previous films. The Toy Story franchise has proven to be Pixar’s longest-running property. The first film—also Pixar’s first feature—was released back in 1995. The sequel, Toy Story 2, was released to near-unanimous acclaim in 1999. Toy Story 3 arrived in 2010, and for a while, it seemed like the series had ended. But a fourth film debuted in 2019, to critical and commercial success. The third and fourth Toy Story movies won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature; Toy Story 3 also scored a rare (for an animated film) Best Picture nod.
Tim Allen voiced Buzz in the original films, as well as the two TV specials Toy Story of Terror! and Toy Story That Time Forgot. Lightyear also features Uzo Aduba as Buzz’s commander and best friend Alisha Hawthorne and Peter Sohn as Sox. Keke Palmer, Taika Waititi and Dale Soules voice Junior Zap Patrol’s Izzy Hawthorne, Mo Morrison and Darby Steel, respectively, while James Brolin voices Zurg.
Directed by Angus MacLane, produced by Galyn Susman, and featuring a score by award-winning composer Michael Giacchino, Lightyear opens only in theaters on June 17. You can watch the new trailer here, and read the film’s official synopsis down below:
The definitive origin story of Buzz Lightyear, the hero who inspired the toy, Lightyear follows the legendary Space Ranger after he’s marooned on a hostile planet 4.2 million light-years from Earth alongside his commander and their crew. As Buzz tries to find a way back home through space and time, he’s joined by a group of ambitious recruits and his charming robot companion cat, Sox. Complicating matters and threatening the mission is the arrival of Zurg, an imposing presence with an army of ruthless robots and a mysterious agenda. A new poster and images are also available.