Alternate Future Buzz Lightyear, better known as Zurg, is the main antagonist of Pixar's 26th full-length animated feature film Lightyear, a Toy Story spin-off film centered on Buzz Lightyear's origin story.

He is a galactic warlord who takes over the planet of T'Kani Prime with his army of Zyclops, seeking the Star Command's remaining hyperspace fuel. It is later revealed that Zurg is actually the 50-year future self of Buzz Lightyear, wishing to time travel back to the past to prevent his crew from ever landing on the planet. He also serves as Buzz's arch-nemesis.

He was voiced by James Brolin, who also played Richard Finley in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

History[]

Prior to becoming Zurg, he started off as Buzz Lightyear from an alternate timeline. Feeling guilty for a mistake that he committed after crashing the exploration vessel that left himself and the rest of his crew stranded on the planet T'Kani Prime, Buzz spends 62 years doing hyperspace tests as a colony is built on T'Kani Prime so that they can return back to Earth. Following the death of his best friend and commanding officer Alisha Hawthorne, Buzz was told by his new commanding officer Burnside to end all hyperspace tests, as Burnside decided that the colonists will have to get used to living on T'Kani Prime for the rest of their lives.

Still wanting to fix his mistake, Buzz learns from his robotic cat assistant Sox that a new fuel composition might work, but Burnside orders for Sox to be deactivated. Because of this, Buzz saves Sox and steals the XL-15 ship to complete an unofficial yet successful hyperspace test that resulted in another 22 years. At first, Buzz is delighted that he can use the fuel to have the colonists leave T'Kani Prime, but an older Burnside refused to see this feat and orders Buzz's arrest for stealing the XL-15. Realizing that Burnside and the colonists didn't care about going back to Earth, don't even care that he doesn't want to stay on T'Kani Prime, a hurt and angry Buzz escapes away with Sox in the XL-15 much to Burnside's frustration, and they fly as far away from T'Kani Prime as possible at hyperspeed. As a result, they travel centuries into the distant future thanks to the effects of time dilation.

In the far future, Buzz and Sox find a giant abandoned alien vessel equipped with advanced technology, including a massive purple mecha suit. Donning the mecha suit, Buzz uses the ship's technology to build himself a massive army of powerful robots known as the Zyclops, and adopts the name Zurg, taking on the identity of the alien cyborg, as the Zyclops can only pronounce him as such. Zurg also modifies a machine that will allow the vessel to time travel as long as it is powered up by the fuel.

Using the remaining fuel to travel back into the present with the giant vessel, Zurg, the future Sox, and the Zyclops try to invade the colony, forcing the colonists to activate a barrier to shield themselves from Zurg and the Zyclops. Around the same time, the original Buzz Lightyear arrives with the original Sox at T'Kani Prime after they completed the mission, where they meet up with members of the colony's defense forces composed of Alisha's granddaughter Izzy, elderly convict Darby, and naïve recruit Mo. Taking refuge, Izzy explains to Buzz and Sox that Zurg is trying to get the Zyclops to invade the colony, and the only way to deactivate the Zyclops is to destroy Zurg's vessel.

However, Zurg catches hold of Buzz's presence, so he sends several Zyclops to track down Buzz and his team. Eventually, one of the Zyclops is able to nab the fuel while Zurg himself captures Buzz, allowing himself and the Zyclops to transport themselves back onto Zurg's ship. Zurg then reveals his true identity to Buzz before explaining his backstory. Zurg then reveals his actual true plan: he intends to use the new fuel that the original Sox created to go back in time to prevent his past self from crashing the exploration vessel on T'Kani Prime in the first place so that the crew can escape back to Earth. At first, Buzz is delighted, but then realizes in horror that a possible temporal paradox would result from such actions, which will wipe out the current timeline and everyone from it (including Izzy and her comrades). Knowing that the Hawthorne family and the rest of the colonists had a great life in T'Kani Prime despite what happened, Buzz realizes that his intent to fix his mistake will make things worse, finally decides to let it go and refuses, but an angry Zurg retaliates by having two of his Zyclops detain Buzz while taking the fuel for himself.

A restrained Buzz tries to reason with Zurg by pointing out that his plot will wipe out everyone in the current timeline, including Alisha's family, but Zurg is too deluded to even care or listen, still thoughtlessly believing the plan to bring everyone to Earth is more important than the future of ungrateful people. Just as Zurg is about to activate his machine with the fuel to go back, he ends up being darted by the future Sox, impressed by Buzz's decision to move forward with his life. Setting Buzz free, the future Sox allows Buzz to take back the fuel and directs him to the controls to Zurg's ship, where Buzz has a future I.V.A.N. set it to self-destruct. However, Zurg, donning his armor again, furiously destroys the future Sox, much to Buzz's horror, and engages in a fight against Buzz, swearing to kill him for staying on Burnside's side.

Eventually, Izzy and her team (including Sox) managed to hijack Zurg's ship to rescue Buzz and set Zurg's ship to self-destruct after it was cancelled earlier. Buzz and his team all escape as the ship explodes, deactivating nearly all the Zyclops. However, Zurg, having survived his ship's destruction, arrives and attacks Buzz while stealing the fuel. Declaring that he can still use the fuel to go back in time, Zurg prepares to kill Buzz with a single blast. However, using a jet pack and a laser gun, Buzz shoots the fuel cannister, causing it to seemingly destroy the shocked Zurg in a massive explosion.

After delivering his friends to safety back on T'Kani Prime and taking full responsibility for his actions, Buzz, no longer desiring to return home, decides to remain on T'Kani Prime as Burnside allows him to revive the Space Ranger Corps as a reward for defeating Zurg.

However, in the post-credits scene, Zurg's robot suit is shown drifting through space, unburnt, but seemingly inactive. However, the eyes on Zurg's robot suit suddenly power on, indicating that he survived the explosion after the fight with Buzz, and that he will return to get revenge on Buzz and Burnside for foiling his plot.

Appearance[]

Zurg is a giant, fearsome alien robot with red eyes, purple armor, and bull-like horns. His design is similar to Zurg's from Toy Story, but more frightening and realistic, with actual legs that are massive and used for crushing. His triple-barreled ion blaster is now integrated into his left arm, instead of being handheld in his right hand. His right hand is extendable, allowing him to catch faraway enemies. Zurg also has rocket boosters in his feet, allowing him to travel through space.

His actual form is the elderly version of Buzz Lightyear, having grey hair, wrinkled skin, and a slightly hunched back. He wears a black and grey suit with the letter "Z" on the front.

Personality[]

Little is known of Zurg's personality at first, but he's more dangerous and brutal than his original counterpart. While the original Zurg hid in his lair, sent out troops and only shot at Buzz Lightyear from a distance, this version of Zurg seems very happy to engage in hand-to-hand combat with his enemies, trying to punch and trample Buzz to death with brute strength alone. This suggests this incarnation of Zurg really enjoys physical violence and only uses his lasers as a fallback strategy. He is also very intelligent in nature despite his lack of understanding his actions and what he's become, as he provides strong leadership for the Zyclops to fight back against the enemies, he even modifies his vessel to travel back in time, either to the future or the past.

Revealing Zurg's true identity as a future version of Buzz Lightyear also highlights his true nature: that of a selfish and nihilistic elderly person who refuses to let go of his guilt of stranding himself and his people on T'Kani Prime, even though the people have come to thrive on the planet and make productive lives for themselves. Instead, he is obsessed and determined to fix his mistakes, even through extreme measures. Considering the fact that Commander Burnside attempted to arrest him after his successful hyperspace test, Zurg became very deluded as he felt that his existence didn't matter to the colonists anymore and decided to prove them wrong by going back in time to prevent the exploration vessel from ever crashing on T'Kani Prime.

His delusion overwhelmed his mind to the extent of ignoring the original Buzz's warnings about a time paradox that will wipe out everyone in the current timeline if Zurg accomplishes his goal. This showed his goal of finishing the mission had devolved from altruism to glory, as upon finally getting the fuel, Zurg triumphantly said he could finally finish the mission and matter to everyone again. When mentioning Alisha and her family, Zurg callously said she, as with everyone else, couldn't miss her family if she didn't remember them. He even destroys the future Sox when the latter betrayed him after siding with the original Buzz, declaring him to be a traitor. This shows he ultimately abandoned whatever care he had for the people and remnants of his past (especially Sox and Alisha) in his determination to finish his mission.

Upon losing his vessel and a majority of the Zyclops, Zurg becomes more unhinged and homicidal as he steals the fuel, even though it was useless now, and attempts to kill Buzz without hesitation, forcing Buzz to destroy the fuel in order to defeat Zurg. Because of this event, Buzz sees Zurg as nothing more than a depraved and darker version of himself who refused to let go of his flaws and allowed them to corrupt him.

Allies[]

• Star Command's old members †
  • Alisha Hawthorne † - Best friend and former superior
  • Old Sox † - Pet cat (formerly)
  • Airman Diaz †
  • Featheringhamstan †
• Zyclops †
• Future I.V.A.N. † (formerly)
• Commander Burnside † (formerly in first timeline) - fan and temporary superior

Enemies[]

• Buzz Lightyear - Alternate past counterpart, archenemy, attempted victim and attempted killer
• Sox - Attempted victim
• Star Command's new members
  • Izzy Hawthorne - Attempted victim
  • Mo Morrison - Attempted victim
  • Darby Steel - Attempted victim
  • Commander Burnside † (first timeline) - Former fan, temporary superior and attempted captor
  • Commander Burnside (second timeline) - Secondary archenemy and attempted victim
  • Zappers 66 and 26 †?
  • Future I.V.A.N. † - Attempted killer
• Old Sox † - Former pet cat and victim

Powers & Abilities[]

Zurg is an extremely powerful and dangerous adversary in many ways. He has vast intelligence, being able to use and modify incredibly advanced technology with ease, and supreme leadership over his army of Zyclops robots.

When wearing the Zurg suit, he is almost invincible and seemingly indestructible, being able to shrug off laser beams and survive massive explosions. He also has massive strength and crushing weight, being to lift, throw and crush huge metal objects with great ease. He also uses a dangerous arm cannon just like his Toy Story counterpart only it shoots real lasers. He also has rocket boosters built into his feet, allowing him to fly and travel through space, as well as an extendable right hand which allows him to catch faraway enemies. The suit also appears to have the ability to reassemble itself, as seen when the right hand was able to to return to the suit and fix itself back on after Buzz shot it off.

Weaknesses[]

Despite his many dangerous attributes and the powerful technology at his disposal, Zurg does have a few exploitable weaknesses. For example, he appears to have grown somewhat arrogant and overconfident, as shown when he decided to taunt Buzz before trying to shoot him, which gave Buzz enough time to eject, extend his wings and shoot the fuel canister in Buzz's hand, thus defeating him.

Furthermore, while Zurg's suit is almost indestructible, it does have at least one weak point; the chain that extends his right hand. This was demonstrated when Buzz was able to temporarily shoot through the chain with his laser, although he is able to have it reattached.

Quotes[]

Trivia[]

• Lightyear was James Brolin's first animated movie voice role.
• The Zurg suit is different in many ways from his toy version which first appeared in Toy Story 2:
  • The Zurg suit is lifeless and not an emperor.
  • The suit has legs, while Toy Zurg has little wheels that makes him roll below his toy body.
  • The suit does not have a cape, but does have a wings.
  • The triple gun in Lightyear is part of the suit and located on the left hand and the right hand is extendable, while Toy Zurg's triple gun is a handheld weapon and he wields it on the right hand and his left hand simply spins. He also lacks a cage connected to the blaster storing the ammo.
• Speaking of the above differences, many fans were angry that this incarnation of Zurg is nothing really like the original Zurg in persona such as instead being a future version of Buzz.
  • However, this is different in a deleted scene of the film where Larry Lightyear, Buzz's father, was revealed to be in control of Zurg the robot (which the latter was possibly wearing too) which was scrapped because it was considered among the staff too predictable with the twist.
• He does not technically adopt the name Zurg (which is just the gibberish the Zyclopses speak), which explains why he was confused as to why the younger Buzz called him by that name.
• Ironically, James Brolin's son Josh played Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which Chris Evans, who voices Buzz Lightyear in Lightyear, played Captain America.
• Excluding the original Buzz Lightyear (owned by Andy Davis and later Bonnie Anderson) when he was brainwashed by Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear in Toy Story 3, This is the second villain in the Toy Story franchise to be an evil counterpart to Buzz Lightyear, the first being Evil Buzz Lightyear.
• He is also the second Old Buzz who time travels to the past, similar to Old Buzz from the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command episode "Good ol' Buzz".
• He is the third Pixar main antagonist to be a supervillain after Syndrome from Pixar's 2004 film The Incredibles and Evelyn Deavor from its 2018 sequel Incredibles 2.
  • He is the first Pixar supervillain main antagonist to not originate from the Incredibles movies.
  • He is also the second Pixar villain to survive in a film with a human protagonist, after Evelyn Deavor.
• He is the only Pixar villain to appear in the Disney Mirrorverse.
• Zurg serves as a dark reflection to Buzz Lightyear, representing what Buzz would have become if he never got over his obsession of getting his crew off T'Kani Prime.
  • He also serves as a dark reflection for Burnside, as both having different plans to help the people (Burnside believed that Star Command should stay on T'Kani Prime and Zurg believed they should return to Earth), they opposed each other's plans because they don't want to abandon their planet (T'Kani Prime for Burnside and Earth for Zurg) and they even tried to get rid of each other to get what they want (Burnside tried to arrest Zurg for disobeying him and Zurg tried to erase Burnside for rejecting his efforts), both also do not take responsibility for their mistakes (Burnside never showed remorse for trying to take Sox from Buzz despite his disobedience being his fault, just as Zurg did not want to accept rejection for disobeying Star Command).
• In the novelization of the movie, Zurg's true identity as an older version of Buzz is only heavily implied than outright revealed, as Zurg stays in his suit the whole time and chooses not to reveal his true identity to his younger self. This may have been done to prevent spoilers for those who haven't seen the film.
• Zurg unintentionally prevented Buzz from becoming him by attacking the colony before he returned from his hyperspace test. Burnside would be too preoccupied shielding the colony to immediately arrest the returning Buzz for his insubordination, leading him to meet Izzy instead and coming to understand how Alisha and the colonists, in spite of being stranded for years, still had happy lives and families. This convinces him to accept remaining on T'Kani Prime rather than continue losing milestones of his life and refuse to alter history. When Burnside finally catches up to Buzz, the latter had saved the colony from Zurg and does not resist arrest like his future self did, thus earning a pardon and a chance to be a Space Ranger again.
• Although he's different from his toy version, there are many references to the latter:
  • After Zurg captures Buzz, the latter jumps over him, which is a reference to the Toy Story 2 opening, where Toy Buzz makes a similar jumps over Toy Zurg.
  • When the true identity of Zurg is revealed, Buzz first asks "Dad?". This is a reference to Toy Zurg's quote: "No, Buzz. I am your father.", which itself is a reference to the quintessential Darth Vader (Star Wars) quote to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
  • When Zurg confronts Buzz's ship in the final battle, the suit has wings that resemble Toy Zurg's cape.
  • After Zurg's warship's destruction, when Zurg was about to kill Buzz, he says "So... Prepare to die.", which is reference to this quote from Toy Zurg.
• When Buzz talked about the technology the Future Buzz used, he thought that his future self created it, but the Future Buzz claimed that it is "borrowed". What this means is currently unknown. It is possible that an unseen provider had give him the machines and armor, or that the Future Buzz had indeed found it in space at some point in the future. Given that the machines says "Zurg" it is possible that the actual Zurg created them, but left them stranded in space for unknown reasons, and this also means that the real Zurg remains out there.

External Links[]

• Emperor Zurg on the Pixar Wiki
• Emperor Zurg on the Lightyear Wiki

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