Chris Evans Defends His Controversial Lightyear Tweet

In the lead-up to the June 17 premiere of "Lightyear," Chris Evans guested on an episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live." During their interview, which is available on the show's YouTube channel, Kimmel brought up a post Evans shared to his Twitter account in reply to a Tweet containing the initial teaser for "Lightyear." His Tweet reads in full, "And just to be clear, this isn't Buzz Lightyear the toy. This is the origin story of the human Buzz Lightyear that the toy is based on."

With little else available to parse the plot of "Lightyear," fans at the time were understandably confused. For example, podcast host Nick Wiger sarcastically replied to Evans' Tweet, "cleared it up, thanks." Some sites like Boston.com even reported on the confusion ensuing from Evans' implication that Buzz Lightyear was once a human man.

Evans told Kimmel that he proofread this Tweet multiple times before sharing it, fully believing that it would help clear up confusion about the nature "Lightyear." Then, when given a second chance to explain the plot of "Lightyear" to Kimmel, he described a Powerpoint presentation director Angus MacLane gave to pitch his project, characterizing "Lightyear" as a film Andy would have seen, thus sparking his interest in owning a Buzz Lightyear toy.

"If only you tweeted that. You would have saved so many people so much hardship," Kimmel replied, after Evans' clearler — albeit considerably longer — explanation.