Toy Story spin-off Lightyear confirms Disney+ release date – and it's very soon

Toy Story spin-off Lightyear officially has a release date on Disney+.

The Buzz Lightyear origin story has been confirmed to be dropping on the streaming service worldwide on August 3, which *checks calendar* is two weeks and one day away. Not that long at all, really.

It's also pretty much when we expected. The Walt Disney Company has released most of its films in cinemas with a 45-day exclusivity window (with the exception of Encanto and its 30-day big-screen only run) since the pandemic began.

You could argue that the knowledge films are coming so soon to Disney+ is harming performance at the box office, as Lightyear didn't do massive numbers when compared to other releases from Disney and Pixar.

There may be some truth in that, although plenty of movies in the last few months have done big numbers at the box office, including Disney's own Spider-Man: No Way Home. In Lightyear's case, it opened to some pretty mediocre reviews across the board, with a feeling that people just aren't interested in seeing a more realistic-looking origin story for Buzz.

"As a result, Lightyear can't help feeling like a cash grab rather than a necessary expansion of the franchise," Digital Spy's own review of the film reads, adding: "If you can ignore that, however, the movie is also a visually spectacular sci-fi throwback, full of wit and emotion."

Lightyear director Angus MacLane has stated that everyone working on the film would be open to doing a sequel, and while the critical and box office reception didn't light up the world, perhaps it will become one of those films that finds a home at home.

Lightyear is still showing in select cinemas, and will be on Disney+ from August 3.

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Joe Anderton

Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.