Does Lightyear's Failure End Disney's LGBTQ+ Plans?
The poor box office return of Disney/Pixar’s Lightyear creates a major question around how the studio might make an example of the film. Despite the legacy of its predecessors, the not-quite-prequel didn’t seem to interest what should have been its largest viewership: the adults who grew up with the original Toy Story movies. Considering that Lightyear contains some of the studio’s strongest depictions of LGBTQ+ relationships with Commander Alisha Hawthorn and her wife, its poor numbers—and the unsurprising backlash to that aspect—could leave future Pixar films with queer storylines in flux.
The lesbian relationship in Lightyear isn’t actually the first depiction in the Toy Story series. There’s a split second in Toy Story 4 where a child and their lesbian moms are seen outside of Bonnie’s school. As the film didn’t linger on these characters, it was something viewers could have missed entirely. But, even with such a brief appearance, eagle-eyed audience members caught it—and so the backlash began. Conservative groups called for a boycott of the film, while some in the LGBTQ+ community felt it wasn’t enough representation. Luckily for Disney/Pixar, these reactions did nothing to stop the film from becoming the second-highest-grossing film for the studio (after The Incredibles 2). So, there wasn’t yet a financial deterrent for including further, or even expanded, depictions of LGBTQ+ characters.
Related: Frozen 3 Should Make Elsa's LGBTQ Identity Canon (But Not With A Partner)
Still, Lightyear already had a tough job ahead of it. As with any beloved franchise, whether audiences will accept a new entry is a toss of a coin, and the Toy Story series is the flagship for Pixar Studios. Taking such a sideways approach for a
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