Tim Allen Spills the Beans on Toy Story 5: What’s Coming Next for Buzz Lightyear?

Allen recalled spending many summers of his youth in the Canadian province, specifically the village of Bayfield. He also noted that his great grandmother was from London, Ontario.

“It occurred to me, every time I go back to Canada, ‘Why do I know so much about Canada?’ Because I think half my family’s Canadian, and we never even think about that,” he said, joking about the differences in car names in the Great White North and his relatives calling him a “downstater.”

Allen said he feels very at home in Ontario and is looking forward to playing Fallsview next Friday, as this will be his first tour on the East Coast in a few years. He said his material has evolved quite a bit over the past 30 years and noted his admiration for Richard Pryor as his inspiration for wanting to get his audiences laughing.

“I absolutely had a life-changing experience many, many years ago at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan, with Richard Pryor,” he recalled. “And I said, ‘If I can get anywhere near what he did to me, to other people — I laughed so hard.’ I changed everything about — laughter is the best medicine. Forget about everything that was going on in my life and have a sense of humor about it.”

Allen’s Niagara Falls show comes on the heels of the April 3 announcement that his ABC show “Shifting Gears” will be coming back for season 2. The show stars Allen as Matt Parker, alongside Kat Dennings as his newly separated daughter Riley, as well as Seann William Scott and Daryl Mitchell as Gabriel and Stitch from Parker’s shop, Parker Custom Cars.

Allen said in his time on television, from playing Tim Taylor on “Home Improvement,” to Mike Baxter on “Last Man Standing,” now to Matt Parker on “Shifting Gears,” he has learned that with each project, his characters have become more centered around his own comedy.

In terms of helping create the shows, each has centered around an interest of his. He noted that with “Home Improvement” and “Last Man Standing,” the shows featured an out-of-balance family, with more children than parents. They also featured loving relationships with his character’s wives. The biggest difference with “Shifting Gears” is that Allen’s character is a widower, and to this point in the series, is mostly dealing with his daughter and two grandkids.

“This time the guy lost his wife, so he’s dealing with grief,” he said. “Life is changing, where people that do stuff with their hands aren’t as appreciated as I wish they were. So I deal with that and a dance studio next door that is invigorating because it’s it’s about the live arts, which I find — my niece is a ballet dancer in Washington, and I never really understood ballet until I see how much work she does and how people do it for the love of that craft.”

He said that, different from his pragmatic and business-minded characters, Matt Parker is a designer, an artist, who never got to fulfill his true passion after taking over his father’s business. Allen said ultimately, the show is about fixing things — from old cars to broken relationships.

On the horizon for Allen is also “Toy Story 5,” which is scheduled for a June 19, 2026 release and has already begun production. Allen wasn’t going to give any spoilers about the film, but he did give a very general plot outline.

“I can tell you that it’s a lot about Jessie,” he said. “Tom [Hanks] and I do — Woody and I — do realign. And there’s an unbelievable opening scene with Buzz Lightyears. I can give you that, but I can’t give you much more.”