7 Times Fan Reaction Actually Changed Movies

The Initial Idea: Under his armor, the Turtles villain was intended to be businessman Eric Sacks, a caucasian who had ties to their origins.

The Fan Reaction: While William Fichtner is certainly a talented actor, fans and casual moviegoers alike were not pleased to see yet another Asian character whitewashed. Shredder is traditionally Japanese, and with no shortage of talented Asian-American actors, there didn’t seem to be a good reason to make him caucasian.

Mercifully, the film needed a lot of reshoots, and likely listening to the concerns of the fans, one of the things addressed was Sacks’s role. Actor Tohoru Masamune was added halfway through production to play a shadowy figure who would wear the Shredder costume instead of Sacks.

Fichtner has said it was always the intention for him to play Shredder and judging by initial trailers and video games, it’s clear that was the case until the fans had their say. This change was probably for the best but the cost of the authenticity meant we had a random bad guy who was barely in the film don the armor as opposed to the more developed, originally intended user.