Gael Garcia Bernal has been cast as the new Zorro in Fox’s upcoming reboot of the vigilante tale, Zorro Reborn. The Mexican actor’s portrayal of Zorro will that of an anti-hero and a revenge-seeking rebel, as opposed to earlier versions of the character that presented him as the protagonist.
Movie Hole is reporting that Zorro Reborn won’t be set in Mexico, as with previous films featuring the sword-fighting character. Instead, the action-adventure film will rather be set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Bernal’s casting comes as Sony, who produced the Zorro films starring Antonio Banderas, continues working on a revamp of the iconic character. The Sony film is an origin story about the hero, based on Isabel Allende‘s 2005 novel Zorro.
Hopefully Zorro Reborn will be better than Banderas’ last turn as the character, in 2005’s The Legend of Zorro. It will be interesting to see how Fox will turn the beloved character’s image around and make him into a villain. Furthermore, I wonder how fans of the iconic character will re-act to his re-imagining. Will they welcome it or is Fox making a mistake with the direction they’ve chosen to go in?
