If you haven’t been on an internet fast for the last few days, you’ll have heard about Lightyear! Lightyear is the recently announced origin story from Disney Pixar, detailing the history and backstory for Buzz Lightyear, the much-beloved character from the industry-defining animated film series, Toy Story. Toy Story was the first feature-length movie to be fully computer-animated and was ground-breaking in its success! Since the initial 1995 release, Toy Story has seen three direct sequels, Toy Stories 2, 3, and 4, released in 1999, 2010, and 2019 respectively, and has secured its status as one of the most loved animated film series in cinema history.
Now fans are being treated to the latest installation in the franchise – Lightyear. This origin story won’t focus on the toy character we’ve loved for four films, but rather the in-world fictional astronaut who served as the ‘real-life’ inspiration for the toy.
Fans have shown how eagerly they are anticipating this brand-new addition to the Toyverse! Within 24 hours of its release, the official teaser trailer skyrocketed to 83 million views online! This places Lightyear as the second most viewed first day teaser trailer in Pixar history! Only Incredibles 2 boasted a higher viewing rate when the teaser trailer was first released, which clocked in at a staggering 114 million!
Lightyear’s first day viewing numbers beat out all previous Toy Story movies, along with recent animated hits Luca and Soul, which claimed 28 and 32 million views respectively. The teaser also beat out the first day teaser views for smash box office releases from this year, including live-action 101 Dalmatians spin-off Cruella, which managed to attain 71 million views, and Marvel’s latest instalment Eternals, which saw 77 million views.
The announcement also took social media by storm. Almost instantly, Lightyear topped Twitter’s global trending list, where it stayed for most of the day along with related terms also trending such as Toy Story, To Infinity and Beyond, and lead voice actor Chris Evans. The teaser also hit YouTubes top global videos and became the number one trending story on Reddit!
Clearly, fans are dying for another Toyverse instalment, and this teaser has stirred up significant excitement for the Summer 2022 release! Lightyear will hit theatres on Father’s Day weekend, falling on June 17th next year.