Last fall, rumors stated he was in the running to play Tetsuo against Garrett (TRON: Legacy) Hedlund’s Kaneda. Kebbell confirms these rumors were true, although – as a fan of the manga and original movie – he wasn’t thrilled with some of the creative choices of the live-action script.
He told IFC:
They were like, ‘This is going to be a big franchise!'” he explained. “So I said, ‘Then in that case, understand that I’ve read the comics, and I’ve read the comics that got turned into the annuals, and then the annuals that got turned into the one-off anime. So if you really want to do it, then why don’t you look at the six comics and just put two into each film?'”
“That way my character, Tetsuo, is not the lead,” he continued. “He’s not the second lead, and he’s not the third or the fourth lead, because there are eight major characters there. You’ve got great young actors, and you could get them in there. That’s the way to do it if you want to do sequels.”
He also said that the studio wanted to make Tetsuo and Kaneda brothers:
“The other thing they wanted to do was make [Tetsuo and Kaneda] brothers,” he continued. “I was like, ‘The point is that Tetsuo can’t comprehend how someone who isn’t his brother could love him so much — and that’s where his wrath and his rage come from. Do you not see that? Why have you made them brothers? What the f*ck are you doing?'”
Kebbell knows that voicing his opinion may not land him the Tetsuo gig should Akira ever get off the ground, but the Jaume Collet-Serra-directed film is on hold at Warner Bros. over budget problems.
