Well, that was certainly unexpected. When word broke William Fichtner (The Dark Knight, Black Hawk Down) was cast in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I sincerely thought he'd be Baxter Stockman or maybe even Fugitoid. But during an interview with HuffPost TV Canada, the actor revealed he's playing the Turtles' most famous villain, Shredder.
"I play Shredder. It is cool. It's one of those things that came along where I thought, "Really? Let me think about this for a minute." [Laughs] Then I was like, "Yeah, OK, this sounds like a journey." I'm very glad that it worked out, I'm really glad that I'm doing it."
While speaking with IGN, Fichtner said, "It's not the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles you've seen before. This is new. This is a Michael Bay production. It's kind of freaky." Seeing as the Foot Clan is sporting a more militaristic vibe in this film (perhaps special forces with ninja training?), this is naturally going to draw strong parallels to the previously leaked script --- a script Bay claimed was thrown away and nothing like the final draft. In that version, the leader of the group was "Colonel Schrader" and based on this casting choice, I wouldn't be surprised if that's still the case (safe to assume his name isn't Oroku Saki, yes?).
And to the crowd about to flip tables or smash keyboards: if you're that upset over this franchise undergoing changes, then I sincerely hope you're also supporting it by reading the IDW series or at least watching the show on Nick. Both are excellent.
Directed by Jonathan Liebesman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hits theaters June 6, 2014.
Source: HuffPost TV Canada, IGN