Who voices Hawthorne in Lightyear? Pixar reinstates queer scene following Don't Say Gay bill controversy

In Disney and Pixar's Lightyear, which will be released in June this year, a character named Hawthorne, voiced by Uzo Aduba, and her partner share what could be the animation studio's first queer kiss in a feature film.

According to a source familiar with the production, the queer relationship was always a part of the movie and that was never up for debate. But the kiss was eventually eliminated as part of the creative process in terms of conversations about intimacy.

However, in light of the current climate at Disney, the source claims that a decision was made last week to restore the kiss to the finished picture.

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What made Disney Pixar restore the queer kiss in the animated film Lightyear

Following Disney's response to the Don't Say Gay legislation, Pixar employees wrote a letter accusing the studio of forbidding them from developing or showing displays of LGBTQ+ intimacy and content in its stories.

The letter addressed the issue stating,

“We at Pixar have personally witnessed beautiful stories, full of diverse characters, come back from Disney corporate reviews shaved down to crumbs of what they once were. Nearly every moment of overtly gay affection is cut at Disney’s behest, regardless of when there is protest from both the creative teams and executive leadership at Pixar.”

Because of the kiss of Uzo Aduba's Hawthorne in Lightyear, certain nations throughout the world may refuse to release the film due to objections to LGBTQ+ content.

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How have Disney Pixar treated LGBTQ+ representation in the past

This inclusion, of course, raised the question of which moments had been shaved down or totally deleted from previous animated movies. In 2020's Onward, a gay character mentions her girlfriend, but the character never shows them together or in any form of romantic situation.

Before Onward, there was a visual hunt for the studio's many Easter eggs for queer characters. In Cars 3, there is an angry school bus character who had a rainbow-striped version of the Lightning McQueen lightning bolt as a bumper sticker.

In Finding Dory, a same-s*x couple with a child walks by in the background. There is also a seemingly gay character in their most recent release, Turning Red.

Of course, talks immediately turned to last year's Luca, which is perhaps the most explicitly gay Pixar film, both in terms of the bond formed by two young sea monsters on a sun-drenched Italian island after WWII.

In terms of the thematic underpinnings of having to hide your true self to fit in, the jealousy that forms between the two characters, and the overall vibe of the relationship, many compared the movie to the Pixar version of Call Me By Your Name.

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More about Disney's upcoming movie Lightyear

Longtime Pixar veteran Angus MacLane directed Lightyear, which imagines the renowned space ranger as he was always meant to be, in the midst of a massive sci-fi epic.

Chris Evans plays Buzz, with Taika Waititi, Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn, and James Brolin as Zurg rounding out the supporting cast.

Lightyear will hit theatres on June 17, 2022.