Chris Evans Says Tim Allen Was a “Tough Legacy” to Follow

For Chris Evans, taking up the mantel of Buzz Lightyear meant honoring the character’s original voice actor.

“It’s a tough legacy to try and touch what Tim Allen did,” Chris exclusively told E! News’ Daily Pop, “so you have to honor that and use it as a blueprint, but still try and find a way to add your own interpretation.”

The Marvel star was thrilled when he got the call from Disney and Pixar about bringing Buzz’s origin story to life in the movie Lightyear, which premieres June 17. But Chris revealed he was a bit hesitant about it at first.

“My team called and they said, ‘OK, we have everybody.’ Usually, if everybody’s on the call, it’s either really good news or really bad news,” he told Daily Pop. “They said, ‘So, Pixar has a movie. They wanna pitch it. All they told us was Buzz Lightyear.’ I said, ‘Tim Allen’s Buzz Lightyear, but OK.'”

Everything worked out for the best, as Chris wrote in an Instagram post after the film’s announcement that he “didn’t stop smiling through the ENTIRE pitch.”