When Lightyear was first announced, there was initially a lot of backlash against the idea of Toy Story veteran Tim Allen being replaced as Buzz. But Disney and Pixar made a smart choice with their replacement as no one can stay mad at Chris Evans. Sure enough, with the spinoff film coming this summer, fans can’t wait to see the Captain America star’s take on the Space Ranger in full.
While we await the movie’s arrival, Lightyear‘s director Angus MacLane has assured us that Evans gave 110% in the role. In an interview with Digital Spy, MacLane heaped praise upon praise on his leading man, stressing that Evans is a delight to work with as both “a performer and a person.”
As a performer and as a person, he’s so affable and agreeable and such a wonderful creative collaborator that he’s very disarming. When push comes to shove and he has to deliver something kind of awkward – for example, there’s an action sequence – and he can just watch the scene and we’ll turn the sound off and he can perform all the physical movements.
MacLane went on to add how Evans surprised him with just how good he was at voice acting, considering it’s not something he’s had too much experience doing — although fans may know he voiced Casey Jones in 2007’s Ninja Turtles flick TMNT.
There would be things where he could do it in one take, a whole scene, just by watching it and making all these grunting noises that were perfect. We could just drop the whole thing in and slide it eight frames earlier and it works. There would be a moment where we would go, ‘Oh wow, he’s really, really good at this’. It’s not just because he’s a nice guy, he’s really technically amazing at what he does.”
Lightyear producer Galyn Susman has similarly gushed about Evans’ commitment to the part, admitting that as “a huge animation fan” he brought so much “love and passion into the project.” What’s more, Susman also revealed that Evans would attend animation dailies to see keep up to date with how the movie was progressing. He even gave the animation team encouraging pep talks.
Evans is once again proving that he actually is Captain America in real-life. Which is funny, as his Buzz will share some things in common with Steve Rogers. The final Lightyear trailer made clear that the Star Command captain will find himself decades in the future after going through a portal, similar to Cap being frozen in ice in the MCU.
Don’t miss Chris Evans in Lightyear when it premieres in theaters on June 17.