Borderlands Fans Are Shocked By Missing Movie Characters
The first trailer for Eli Roth's "Borderlands" has drawn mixed responses from fans of the original video games. Some are unhappy with the casting choices for characters, like comedian Kevin Hart as tough guy Roland and Cate Blanchett as Lilith, a character who was in her 20s in the first "Borderlands" game. And then there are the characters who didn't get cast at all.
Lilith and Roland were two of the four playable characters in Gearbox Software's original chaotic shooter-looter, which allowed up to four players to team up and take on the hostile planet of Pandora in the search for a legendary Vault. Lilith has the advantage of strange powers that allow her to become temporarily invisible, while Roland is highly effective with heavy guns and has an automatic turret for backup. But missing from the trailer for "Borderlands" — and apparently from the whole movie, unless they show up as a surprise — are arguably the two most fun character classes from the first game, Mordecai and Brick.
Brick is a classic tank/brawler character: a broad slab of muscle who specializes in blowing stuff up and pounding enemies into pulp with his fists. Mordecai is the opposite: he has a talent for sharpshooting and sniper rifles, meaning he's most lethal from a distance. More importantly, though, Mordecai has a pet bird who tears people's faces off on command.
Missing in action
The obvious explanation for Mordecai and Brick being left out of the "Borderlands" movie is to make room for characters from the game sequels. Arianna Greenblatt's Tiny Tina was a non-playable character in the games, but her love of explosives overlaps with Brick's, and having both characters in the movie might have felt kind of redundant.
For similar reasons, having two berserker-type characters might have been a bit too much, and Roth's "Borderlands" already features Krieg, a playable character introduced in the second game. Played by Florian Munteanu in the film, Krieg is a Psycho — one of the wild bandits that populate Pandora. A generic Pyscho is the unofficial mascot of the "Borderlands" games, featured on the cover of every main game in the series, so for brand recognition purposes, it makes sense to include Krieg on the team.
Mordecai's absence is a little harder to puzzle out. Why would anyone choose not to include a guy with a killer pet bird in their movie? But aside from the aforementioned issue of making room for characters from the "Borderlands" game sequels, Lionsgate may also have wanted to save some major characters for a potential movie sequel. That's exactly what the "Sonic the Hedgehog" movie did, revealing Sonic's good friend Tails in a mid-credits scene and waiting until "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" to introduce Knuckles the Echidna.
Guardian Squad of the Borderlands
The "Borderlands" games have always been about a group of outcasts and outlaws with varying grips on their mental well-being teaming up to seek their fortune in a violent way, so discussion of the trailer has naturally included comparisons to filmmaker James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy" films and his recent take on "The Suicide Squad."
Both the trailer and the poster for "Borderlands" lean hard on the "ragtag team of misfits" trope, featuring taglines like "Chaos loves company" and "To take this planet on, you have to be a little off." Tightening up the "Guardians of the Galaxy" connection is the song choice for the trailer: "Do Ya" by Electric Light Orchestra, whose song "Mr. Blue Sky" was the backdrop for the opening battle in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2." Gearbox's Randy Pitchford, the creator of the games and an executive producer on the movie, acknowledged the similar vibes in an interview with IGN, but pointed out that "Borderlands" came first:
"It's funny, we started this process before 'Guardians,' the films were made. And I actually did a thing once with James Gunn who wrote and directed the 'Guardians' movies [...] There's definitely some similar tone vibes. 'Guardians' definitely benefited from 'Borderlands' and 'Borderlands' definitely benefits from 'Guardians.' So it's just all part of the soup and I think it's awesome."
The similarities to James Gunn's team-up movies only reinforce the likelihood that Brick and Mordecai are being held back for a potential "Borderlands 2" movie. The "Guardians" movies added new characters like Mantis and Cosmo the Spacedog to the team's lineup in sequels, and "The Suicide Squad" was a soft reboot of 2016's "Suicide Squad" that brought back some characters from the first movie and mixed them in with a whole new gallery of rogues. And "Borderlands" was definitely made with sequels in mind.
The Borderlands cinematic universe
The "Borderlands" movie was first announced in 2015 at the height of cinematic universe fever. The Marvel Cinematic Universe was raking in cash, the DC Extended Universe was gearing up for "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," and just about every studio in Hollywood was scrambling to create its own mega-franchise using the cinematic universe model. In the decade that it's taken for "Borderlands" to finally make its way into theaters, audiences seem to have grown kind of tired of the cinematic universe formula. But Randy Pitchford seems to think it could still work for "Borderlands," as he explained to IGN:
"This isn't 'Borderlands 1.' This isn't 'Borderlands 2.' The 'Borderlands' movie is the first of the Borderlands Cinematic Universe and you'll see some characters from some of the different parts of what you might know from the video games. But it also gives us an opportunity to get deeper and expand a little bit."
That includes introducing new characters, like Édgar Ramírez's Deukalian Atlas, CEO of the Atlas Corporation, and the villain of this movie. But if "Borderlands" is successful, it could potentially lead not only to a sequel but also spin-offs and prequels. There's hope of seeing Mordecai and Brick in live-action yet.
"Borderlands" will arrive in theaters on August 9, 2024.