1) The Man In The Shadows
As is clear by now, Ghost in the Shell is not just borrowing from the 1995 movie but pinching inspiration from all over the shop, taking bits and pieces from the manga and the various anime movies and TV series. Eagle-eyed fans might have noticed that the creepy guy at the end of the trailer doesn’t fit with the depiction of the Puppetmaster, the master cyber hacker villain from the first film.
Though we don’t get a good look at his face, this is Michael Pitt. “Everything they told you was a lie,” the actor says, while channelling his best Christoph Waltz impression. “They did not save your life, they stole it.”
As previously revealed, the identity of the villain is Hideo Kuze – another element taken from Innocence. In the manga, Kuze is a childhood friend of Motoko’s who she convinced to undergo the cyber-conversion procedure. As is clear from the trailer, he didn’t take to it – believing it robbed him of his humanity – and sets about destroying everyone with a so-called cyberbrain.
It’s easy to see why the producers plumped for Kuze for this movie (which they no doubt hope will be the first of many). As the movie seems to be pushing the Major’s character arc to the fore, it makes sense for the villain to be a figure from her past. Still, this is something of a surprising development, as it was previously heavily rumoured that Pitt was playing the Laughing Man, the main villain of the Stand Alone Complex series. That said, given the cherry-picking approach the movie seems to have to the canon, his character could easily be a combination of the two.
