According to one compelling theory, Pixar’s Lightyear may have accidentally suggested that Emperor Zurg actually saved Buzz Lightyear, thereby foiling his own plan. Lightyear was a commercial flop and controversially recast Tim Allen with Chris Evans as Buzz Lightyear. However, the film may have also contained a confusing plot point that actually saw its main villain, Emperor Zurg (James Brolin), helping the titular Space Ranger rather than destroying him.
A spinoff of the Toy Story franchise, Lightyear followed the human version of Buzz Lightyear in the movie that got Andy Davis hooked on the toy of the same name prior to the original Toy Story movie. After Buzz crashed alongside a desolate planet alongside his friend Alisha Hawthorne (Uzo Aduba), he spent weeks trying to reach hyper speed in an effort to refuel the colony’s power source, while the world around him aged by decades. On his final return, he found the planet under siege by a familiar face: a redesigned version of evil Emperor Zurg. Buzz teamed up with Izzy Hawthorne (Alisha’s granddaughter) and a team of misfits to take down Zurg, only to discover that Zurg was actually an alternate version of Buzz who was successful in creating the power source, though he was immediately rejected by the colony below who attempted to arrest him for stealing a ship. He turned bitter with age and found a mysterious set of high-tech armor, taking on the mantle of Emperor Zurg and controlling a horde of robots.
The irony of Zurg’s plan to take revenge on the colony that rejected him was that he inadvertently allowed the Space Ranger who would stop him to exist. If Zurg had arrived at the planet later, Buzz would have gone down the same path as the colonists were too preoccupied with Zurg’s invasion to arrest Chris Evans’ Buzz Lightyear when he landed. So, it was actually Zurg who stopped Buzz from becoming another version of Emperor Zurg. The two Buzzes seemed very similar, and if Commander Burnside had met Buzz and rejected his offer of a new power source as he did with Zurg, Chris Evans’ Buzz Lightyear would have transformed into the same bitter Buzz who would become Zurg. Zurg’s identity reveal showed that Buzz’s arch enemy was actually himself, reflecting Lightyear‘s message of working as a team and letting go of arrogance. Buzz was forced to face a dark version of himself who let personal pride and power go to his head. However, Pixar also made Zurg Buzz’s savior, as it was him who prevented Buzz from becoming evil, as he invaded before Buzz’s obsessive, self-assured personality could be changed by meeting Izzy, Mo, and Darby.
Buzz Only Became Zurg After Returning Home
Little was known about the alternate timeline Buzz Lightyear before he became Zurg, but he presumably shared the exact same backstory as Evans’ Buzz. The reveal that Zurg’s invasion was the only thing stopping Evans’ Buzz from turning evil actually hurt the movie. The plot point took the beloved Space Ranger from the Toy Story series and showed that he could become corrupted into something wholly evil.
While the original toy Buzz Lightyear was never perfect and was both dense and a little petty when he initially met Tom Hanks’ Woody, he certainly never had the potential to become the evil Emperor Zurg. Whether intentional or not, by creating a plot point that saw Zurg revealed as an alternate Buzz, rather than the original plan of having Zurg be Buzz Lightyear’s father, Pixar hurt the character of Buzz Lightyear by suggesting that he would have gone down the same path as Zurg, had the evil Emperor not been conveniently invading just as Buzz returned home.
Zurg Accidentally Stopped Buzz Lightyear From Becoming Evil Emperor
The most ironic thing about Zurg stopping Buzz from becoming an evil Emperor Zurg himself is that he unintentionally foiled his own evil plan and saved his colony. Had he not invaded when he did and Buzz had become disillusioned and eventually become Zurg himself, the original James Brolin Zurg would have been able to take over his colony planet. Though Commander Burnside would have likely defended the planet with his army, Buzz’s absence would have meant that Izzy, Mo, and Darby would have never become Buzz’s team of Space Rangers and never helped Buzz stop Zurg.
Buzz was the one who personally faced down Zurg in the atmosphere above the colony planet in Lightyear‘s climax. Without him, Zurg would have had no problem taking over the planet. Perhaps this was an intentional detail added by Pixar to give this version of Buzz Lightyear a warped sense of heroism similar to his Toy Story counterpart. He was therefore responsible for saving the planet from himself, in a roundabout way.
Buzz Lightyear Could Have Still Been The Hero We Know From Toy Story
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Though what little evidence that the two Buzzes were the same suggested that the protagonist Buzz would also become Emperor Zurg, it is not certain. Buzz may have still been a hero. As he never got the opportunity to be reprimanded for stealing a ship from Star Command to reach hyper speed and restore the power source there is no way to say. However, it is absolutely possible that Lightyear‘s younger Space Ranger version of Buzz, would have allowed himself to be imprisoned for stealing the spaceship from Star Command for his final attempt. Unlike the James Brolin version of Buzz/Zurg, the young Chris Evans Buzz was shown to be self-absorbed but still loyal to humanity. When he initially crashed the colony ship at the beginning of the movie, he even court marshaled himself and encouraged Commander Hawthorne to arrest him for his mistake. This did not sound like the kind of Space Ranger who would start calling himself Emperor Zurg and set his sights on taking over the universe.
If Buzz was different enough from the Buzz that would become Emperor Zurg, he could have remained in line with his Toy Story counterpart. The toy Buzz was a fundamentally good person who cared for his friends, especially Woody and Jessie. While he was arrogant at first due to believing he was a real Space Ranger, he would have never turned to the dark side by joining or worse, becoming, Emperor Zurg. If the Buzz from the movie shared the same personality as his toy counterpart, it could have meant that he too would have let Star Command take him in instead of turning into Zurg. While it seemed that Buzz would have also become Zurg had the alternate Buzz/Emperor Zurg not invaded the colony planet, Lightyear’s primary Buzz could have been a different variant of the Space Ranger that held onto his morals, even when he did not agree with Star Command. Whatever the case, Lightyear never showed Chris Evans’ Buzz becoming Zurg, but the evidence certainly suggested that he may well have become the evil Emperor too had Zurg not ironically been the one to stop him.
