When Warner Brothers finally gave a greenlight to their long in development, live action adaption of the classic anime film Akira, rumor began to swirl that TRON: Legacy‘s Garrett Hedlund was a frontrunner for the lead role of Kaneda. Those rumors have turned out to be true as Variety is reporting that the actor has been given an offer to appear in the film.
Much like he did in TRON: Legacy, if Hedlund takes the role, he’ll once again be wearing a leather jacket and riding a motorcycle but this time he’ll be fighting to save his friend from a military experiment designed to amplify his latent psychic powers for use as a weapon. He would be joining Gary Oldman and Helena Bonham Carter who have already joined the cast.
Akira has been in development so long that the likes of Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and James Franco have all had their names linked to the Kaneda role.
