When William Fichtner was originally announced as the actor playing Shredder in 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot, we weren’t thrilled with the idea of replacing the traditionally Japanese character with a white guy. Reshoots late in the game narrowly averted that becoming a reality by subbing in Japanese American Tohoru Masamune as Shredder, and now the sequel has cast Asian American Brian Tee to fill the role.
Tee as Noburo Mori in The Wolverine.
While I’m a little suspicious of intentions after the initial whitewashing and the seeming “Quick! Stick someone else in as a placeholder until we have time to actually recast the role before the sequel!” mentality, at least it seems that they’re taking the character and his Asian heritage more seriously this time around. In fact, they’re taking the Turtles franchise’s entire history more seriously, with Stephen Amell as Casey Jones, Tyler Perry as Baxter Stockman, and rumblings that Bebop and Rocksteady will be part of the film, as well.
So what do you think of the Turtles sequel actually working to make the original Japanese Shredder a real character? Is that really what’s going on with the sequel?
(via Newsarama)
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