Lightyear is yet to hit theaters, and fans of the character are already wondering if we’ll see more of Chris Evans‘ intergalactic hero in the future. Director Angus MacLane has described the film as the Star Wars of the Toy Story universe on multiple occasions, and even stated his belief that the animated series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command was a spin-off of the Lightyear movies within the world of Andy and his toys. This would imply that the film audiences are getting ready to see in our universe spawned an entire franchise in it’s own universe.
Murphy’s Multiverse got the chance to ask the Lightyear creatives about the possibility of potential sequels and spin-offs happening in the real world during a recent exclusive interview. Producer Galyn Susman expressed her belief that a second movie would be possible, but that she and MacLaren were simply focused on ensuring the successful release of the first one until further notice:
I would think that we could tell a second movie from all the ideas we rejected from the first movie, but that’s usually the case with our movies. Um, maybe? How’s that for a very definitive answer? We’re really sort of just finishing this up and launching this baby and we’re so excited to see this film out in theaters and see how people respond. And then I think we’re both going to go home and sleep for a couple weeks. We’ll think about it then.
Galyn Susman
The film’s director was far more open to discussing future installments, but admitted that Lightyear was conceived as a stand-alone adventure within a series of adventures in Buzz Lightyear’s lifetime:
The movie was designed to be a snapshot in a moment in time. It’s not the first adventure of Buzz Lightyear and it’s not the last… I wanted to do something where we weren’t beholden to a timeline that was necessary to do all things. Because what I found as an older fan, explaining everything is not satisfying. Actually, leaving some stuff for the audience to fill in is really a way to involve them and is an engagement with the fans in a way that allows them to make their own choices. So that’s part of it, is a need to be a snapshot. So it could go on, we’ll see.
Angus MacLaren
The gist of this answer seems to be that, while nothing is currently planned and Lightyear will work perfectly fine on it’s own, the door isn’t necessarily closed on more missions down the line. A sequel will probably depend heavily on the first film’s box office success, but if it proves to be a hit, Lightyear just might become the animated Star Wars that MacLaren has previously stated it was.
