Disney and Pixar’s ‘Lightyear’ New Poster shows Emperor Zurg and His Robot Minions

Emperor Zurg looms over Buzz in a new Lightyear poster. 

A spinoff of the Toy Story film series, the upcoming animated movie from Disney and Pixar serves as an origin story for the human astronaut Buzz Lightyear, who goes on to inspire the action figure of the same name voiced by Tim Allen in the Toy Story movies. 

Now, Captain America actor Chris Evans takes over the mantle as the voice of the titular Space Ranger who becomes marooned on a hostile planet.

With Evans leading the cast, Lightyear also features the vocal talents of Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn, James Brolin, Taika Waititi, Dale Soules, Uzo Aduba, Mary McDonald-Lewis, Efren Ramirez and Isiah Whitlock Jr. in supporting roles. Directed by Pixar veteran Angus MacLane (Finding Dory) and based on a script he co-wrote with Pete Docter (Inside Out), Lightyear finds Buzz doing his first test flight for Star Command when he accidentally time-travels 62 years ahead to a future in which the galaxy is threatened by the evil Emperor Zurg (voiced by Brolin). 

This release is a significant one for Pixar, in that it’s the studio’s first movie to arrive in theaters since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.                 

Now, Disney and Pixar have unveiled a new Lightyear poster showing Emperor Zurg and his minions looming over Buzz and crew. In the poster, Buzz is holding his robotic feline companion Sox (voiced by Sohn) and is joined by the three cadets who accompany him on his dangerous mission – Izzy Hawthorne (Palmer), Mo Morrison (Waititi), and Darby Steel (Soules). Below them, the poster also showcases Star Command’s high-tech space station where Buzz’s rocket is launched from. 

The poster was released in conjunction with a new Lightyear trailer that suggests Buzz may be more responsible for the movie’s time travel mishap than initially thought. The poster instead serves to highlight Lightyear‘s primary antagonist, Emperor Zurg, who first appeared in the Toy Story films as Buzz’s archenemy. In the past, Zurg served more as a parody of Darth Vader and Star Wars, but Zurg has now been redesigned to appear far more menacing and match Lightyear‘s more serious tone. 

After years of seeing over-the-top recreations of Buzz and Zurg’s battles in Toy Story, Lightyear can reveal the reality of their adversarial relationship. That alone makes the spinoff an intriguing prospect.

Brolin will likely make for an imposing Zurg, though the early promotional materials for Lightyear have kept his vocal performance under wraps for the time being. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that he will bring some gravitas to the animated villain and add some layers to the character who began as just a side toy in Toy Story. 

If this poster is any indication, the sinister threat of Emperor Zurg and his robot minions will loom large throughout the cosmos when Lightyear releases in theaters this summer on June 17. (sournce: screenrant.com)

(ROHN ROMULO)