‘Lightyear’ Director Answers Our Burning Question: IS There a Taika Waititi Toy in the ‘Toy Story’ Universe!?

Lightyear is frankly a movie that is surprisingly necessary, considering it’s the backstory for a fictional toy that originally appeared in a movie in 1995. I’m speaking in terms of understanding Toy Story in a completely new way, and getting to talk with writer and director Angus MacLane, producer Galyn Susman, and NASA astronaut and Lightyear consultant Thomas Marshburn was a wonderful insight into the film as a whole. And yes, I asked Thomas Marshburn how much space-loving Chris Evans asked him about being an astronaut.

One of my favorite moments of our chat was when I asked if the inclusion of Lightyear into the canon of Toy Story meant that, somewhere out there in the world, there was a Taika Waititi toy because Waititi voices Moe, one of Buzz’s crew in the movie, and Angus MacLane clearly started to realize the vastness of the world he’s building here.

“Are you saying a Taika toy styled like the Buzz Lightyear toy from Toy Story?” MacLane asked as clarification, and when I said yes, it became clear that neither MacLane or Galyn Susman had thought about the toy ramifications of it all. “I haven’t thought about that,” MacLane went on. “But yes, that makes sense. It would be neat to see what Moe would look like in the Toy Story Buzz stylization. It’s a neat idea. Because just the way I thought about was: There’s the movie in the Toy Story universe and then there’s maybe some sequels or whatever but then that becomes an off-shoot TV show that has slightly more 2D designs and that’s what inspired the Toy Story toy just because they had different stylization levels. So, yeah, I guess you could imagine that. That’s a great idea.”

Our whole conversation was great because MacLane has been a Buzz fan from the jump, and while I was a Woody fan myself, I understood how Andy switched from Woody to Buzz in the first Toy Story movie. You can see my whole conversation with MacLane, Susman, and Marshburn here!

Lightyear is in theaters June 17, and it’s one you won’t want to miss!

(featured image: Pixar)