Lightyear Hints Zurg Isn't The Toy Story Spinoff's Real Villain
In the latest trailers and interviews, Lightyear has been hinting that Zurg isn’t the Toy Story spinoff’s real villain. Lightyear tells the story of the astronaut Buzz Lightyear, who becomes the inspiration for the Buzz toy in the Toy Story films. In Toy Story, Buzz’s arch-nemesis is the Evil Emperor Zurg, a tyrannical toy bent on galactic conquest. Though Lightyear is also set to feature Zurg as the antagonist – now voiced by James Brolin — both his redesign and the crew’s secrecy around his role suggest there is more than meets the eye to him.
The Emperor Zurg toy, as he appears in Toy Story 2, is a parody of Darth Vader, complete with a homage to The Empire Strikes Back where Zurg announces to Buzz that he is his father. This kind of portrayal is continued in the animated series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, where Emperor Zurg is shown as a tyrannical alien ruler of the Planet Z, hellbent on galactic conquest. However, Lightyear’s «real» version of the character is more like a giant robot, with mechanical stylings taken from anime and no sign of being Buzz's father. Despite the radical shift away from the Toy Story alien, Art Director Greg Politz has reassured audiences that he will not just be a “mindless automaton” but a “fully-rounded character just like the rest of [the] cast” (via IGN).
Related: Toy Story Theory Explains Real Reason Buzz Lightyear Freezes Around Humans
Details have been scarce beyond this though, with Zurg not speaking in any of the trailers, and Producer Galyn Susman remarking that talking about Zurg would be a Lightyear spoiler. All she gives away is the fact he is“angry about something.” Given the change of the character into a robot and the secrecy around his motivations, it seems likely
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