Toy Story 5 will have Tim Allen back as Buzz Lightyear, and with this, Pixar is confirming the most obvious mistake they made in Lightyear. Toy Story has become Pixar’s most profitable universe, becoming a franchise that has covered movies, TV series, short films, comic books, video games, and more. The film series has supposedly ended two times already, first with Toy Story 3, which saw Andy’s toys getting a new owner as Andy went to college, and Toy Story 4, where best friends Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) parted ways.
Toy Story 4 followed Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the toys as they went on a road trip with Bonnie, where Woody reunited with Bo Peep, who’s now a “Lost Toy”. At the end of Toy Story 4, Woody decided to stay with Bo Peep, while Buzz went back home with Bonnie and the rest. The Toy Story franchise later expanded with the prequel movie Lightyear, which is the in-universe movie that made way for the toy of Buzz Lightyear. However, Pixar didn’t bring Tim Allen back to voice Buzz in his origin story, but it’s now making up for that big mistake by having him back in Toy Story 5.
Tim Allen Is Returning For Toy Story 5 Even After Lightyear’s Recast
There was a lot of confusion around Lightyear and what type of prequel it was, but the opening card briefly explains that the movie is the same one that Toy Story’s Andy saw in 1995 that turned him into a big Buzz Lightyear fan. It was understandably expected that Tim Allen would reprise his role as Buzz in the prequel movie, but instead, Pixar decided to recast him under the excuse of Lightyear aiming to be its own stand-alone story, and bringing Allen would have inevitably brought it too close to the Toy Story films. Chris Evans was cast as Buzz Lightyear, and though he did well, Allen’s absence was definitely felt.
After a lot of speculation around the future of the Toy Story franchise, in February 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that three franchises will continue with one more film each, and one of those is the world of Toy Story. That same month, Tim Allen confirmed that he will be back as Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 5, and in June 2023, it was revealed that Woody will also return for a fifth adventure. Allen doesn’t seem to hold grudges after his Lightyear recasting, and at the time of writing, he’s the only main actor from the Toy Story saga confirmed to be returning.
Why Lightyear’s Recast Was A Mistake (It’s Not Chris Evans’ Fault)
Pixar’s plan of not wanting the audience to associate Lightyear and the Toy Story films too closely by having Tim Allen back as Buzz Lightyear definitely backfired. While it’s understandable that Pixar wanted to mark a difference between fun toy Buzz Lightyear and action hero Buzz, and Evans made a good job as the latter, it didn’t really make sense once it was revealed that Buzz Lightyear isn’t a real person. If Buzz is a fictional character in the universe of Toy Story, it makes no sense that one person would voice the movie character and another the toy based on the character.
After four Toy Story movies, Tim Allen’s voice is the only one associated with Buzz Lightyear, so it truly threw many off that he didn’t voice the Space Ranger in the prequel. Chris Evans made an action hero out of Lightyear’s Buzz and it was great, and it’s not his fault that the recast didn’t work, as it wouldn’t have worked with anyone who isn’t Tim Allen.
