The REAL Zurg IS in LIGHTYEAR – but you have to look closely | JUST A THEORY

MAJOR SPOILERS for LIGHTYEAR ahead. OK so one of the big non-political points of debate in LIGHTYEAR has to do with Zurg and his true motivation and identity. In LIGHTYEAR we see that Zurg is actually a future/older version of Buzz Lightyear (now well into his ’60s or 70s) but who, years later, is still hellbent on rescuing his fellow travelers off the planet they are stranded on, even if it means it might destroy them or their shared histories in the process.

Now a lot of haters are saying that this story seriously retcons, or at the very least provides a ton of confusion, for the Zurg that we see in the TOY STORY series – both in how he perceives himself and how Andy plays with him. And they might be right. In fact, I think they are. Because the Zurg in LIGHTYEAR is NOT the real Zurg.

I mean there are some people who have made the connection, rightfully so, that this Zurg doesn’t even look like the Zurg we see in the TOY STORY series – no cape, no horns, etc… He isn’t even referred to as EMPEROR Zurg. And, again, if the older Buzz Lightyear in the Zurg suit was, IN FACT, the REAL Zurg – aka the version that we see Buzz fight in the TOY STORY series, I would tend to agree. But he’s not. As Obi-Wan Kenobi once said, there is another.

Eagle-eyed viewers will see a split second but CRUCIAL shot. This happens after the younger Buzz Lightyear is kidnapped by Zurg and taken to his ship, and shortly after Zurg reveals himself to be the future/older version of Buzz. Old Buzz aka Zurg tells young Buzz about his travels and his meeting a society in the future that had all kinds of amazing technology. He was gifted that tech and it now just so happens to be running the ship and the robots that Old Buzz/Zurg is currently using.

But when we jump to the point in that flashback where we see Old Buzz receiving the tech from the a representative of that society, the being giving it to him is revealed to be…

ZURG

It is a shot that holds for maybe half a second. But it is crucial. Because this is the REAL ZURG – the one that Buzz Lightyear will eventually come to fight in the TOY STORY series. But why? Is this because I don’t like the old Buzz version of Zurg like all of the other haters and I just will not accept that this is Zurg?? No – not at all (well maybe a little).

But stay with me here and let me explain my reasoning:

It is because Zurg does not appear until TOY STORY 2. Zurg is not in TOY STORY. There is NO ZURG TOY in TOY STORY. TOY STORY 2 came out in 1999 – 4 years AFTER TOY STORY. And it is established in the preamble to LIGHTYEAR that the film was released in 1995, the same year as TOY STORY aka the same year that Andy bought Buzz, etc… But Andy does not buy a Zurg until sometime after that, likely closer to 1999. This would, possibly, mean that the REAL ZURG – aka the one that we see in that flashback sequence in LIGHTYEAR – is featured in a LIGHTYEAR SEQUEL, a sequel that theoretically happens between 1995 and 1999. So the REAL ZURG and his backstory can remain canonically the same as we see presented in TOY STORY 2 and all of the properties that follow – that is of an evil robot leader hellbent on the destruction of Buzz Lightyear – one that has a cape and is referred to as “Emperor Zurg” (neither of which are seen or mentioned in LIGHTYEAR).

Yes the Older Buzz was a great antagonist and played well with the theme, and helped to build a great story in LIGHTYEAR. But the older Buzz just did not have the same gravitas as the Zurg we see in the TOY STORY series – nor did it seem like the backstory which we see TOY STORY 2’s Zurg taking on in those films. It seemed highly divergent both tonally and motivationally.

One last thing, who knows if we will get a LIGHTYEAR sequel at this point, but the films post-credits scenes clearly set a sequel up. The very final post-credit sequence shows that the Old Buzz version of Zurg is still alive – left for dead in space – and who better to come and rescue Old Buzz and help clean up his mess but the REAL ZURG – the one that Andy would eventually buy and the one that we will actually see in the TOY STORY sequels.