One of the biggest questions raised by the upcoming live-action Attack on Titan movie is “Where the heck is Levi!?” In a recent interview with the movie’s screenwriter, Tomohiro Machiyama, he revealed that changing the setting to Japan may be why the badass neat freak is missing from the live-action movies.
According to Machiyama, the world of the live-action movie and the world of the anime and manga are fundamentally different worlds, thus changing the setting of the movie to Japan. The movie has a Japanese tone of sorts and a little less European than the anime and the manga adaptation. And because they changed the setting, they also changed the race of some characters and changed them from German to Japanese, like Eren, Armin, and the rest of the cast with the exception of Mikasa who is already half-Asian. Machiyama also pointed out that Japanese fans (or AoT fans in general) don’t want to see Japanese actors playing German characters.
And while some retained their German names, the biggest naming problem was Levi. Levi, whose name is リヴァイ (Rivai) in Japan has the katakana character, ヴ, which is (v), and that does not sound Japanese at all. Characters who were “race-lifted” like Eren would be easy to write in Japanese, and thus are more natural, but Levi is not.
While one of the most badass neat freaks in anime is left out of the movie because his name would cause a conflict with the story’s new setting, there is however the new character named Shikishima, who is described as the “Strongest Man”. Whether he is a successful surrogate for the real Levi is still a question however.
In the interview, the renowned screenwriter and movie critic also admitted that the sequel movie, Attack on Titan: End of the World, might not be accepted by many fans of the anime and manga as it will get them “heated”. He said that there are a lot of major changes in the new movies, especially with the main characters.
In the anime and manga, Eren is more vengeful and vows to kill every single titan out there, however, in the live-action movie, Haruma Miura’s Eren is more afraid of titans and is often crippled when seeing them. And Mikasa is not the badass titan killer we know in the original, but serves more as a love interest for Eren.
However, it seems that a few of those changes, particularly in Eren’s character, were made on the request of Attack on Titan creator, Hajime Isayama himself. Isayama asked to change Eren’s character as he is “not sympathetic as a shounen manga protagonist” and even said himself that he wants to see Eren become “paralyzed with fear” whenever he sees a titan. Well, we can’t argue once the creator himself steps in and says he wants a different Eren, right?
But despite the fact that the movie does not have Levi in it or that Mikasa and Eren will be quite different, Machiyama still said that he is confident that the movie will be successful and will be well-received by the fans.
The first movie will simply be titled Attack on Titan and it will premiere in Japan on August 1, 2015. The second movie meanwhile will premiere on September 19, 2015 and it will be titled Attack on Titan: End of the World. The movie will also be shown in Singapore, and more details about the Singapore premiere can be seen through this link
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Source: Cinema Today
Why is Levi not in the live-action Attack on Titan movies? Movie"s screenwriter answers
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