Original Speed Racer Star Shares His Advice For Apple TV Reboot

Nearly two decades after he starred in the live-action Speed Racer movie, Emilie Hirsch, its lead actor, has some advice for whoever takes over the role for the upcoming Apple TV reboot.

In 2008, Speed Racer arrived in theaters, adapting the manga and anime series (originally known in Japan as Mach GoGoGo) from the latter half of the 1960s. Now the property is getting another live-action adaptation, but this time it will go directly to streaming. What remains a mystery is who will play the new Speed Racer.

In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Grant Hermanns for the original film’s 4K re-release, Hirsch was asked what advice he would give to the actor selected for the role if the Speed Racer series that J.J. Abrams is developing for Apple TV moves forward. The actor answered:

I think just embrace it. I think that that’s the main piece of advice is to just embrace it. I don’t know that project, what the tone would be. Sometimes they’ll do a different type of take on material that is tonally 180. Sometimes it’s hard to know exactly, and I don’t know the status of that particular project, but obviously a very talented group of people. So I don’t know. It’s pretty hypothetical right now.

The Speed Racer TV reboot was announced in May 2022. Abrams is developing the new series through his Bad Robot production company. At the time, he was also listed as one of the Apple TV project’s executive producers, while Friday Night Lights’ Ron Fitzgerald and The Last Ship’s Hiram Martinez were attached as writers.

Four years later, there haven’t been any significant updates on whether Apple TV intends to follow through with another version of Speed Racer. From his perspective, Hirsch simply wants whoever plays the titular protagonist to embrace the role in the same way he did for the 2008 movie. Beyond that, he’s in the dark about what’s being planned for the series.

Speed Racer, which recently had an IMAX re-release, starred Christina Ricci as Trixie, Matthew Fox as Racer X, John Goodman as Pops Racer, and Susan Sarandon as Mom Racer, alongside Hirsch. The Wachowskis wrote and directed the feature, which stayed largely faithful to the original source material. Before and after Speed Racer’s release, there was talk of making a sequel.

However, Speed Racer bombed at the box office, making only a little under $94 million worldwide off a reported $120 million budget. It also received mixed reviews from critics at the time, with the movie resting at a 42% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes. However, Speed Racer has since been praised by critics and is now considered a cult classic.

Speed Racer had previously been in development as a film stretching back to 1992, and in 1995, Johnny Depp was cast in the lead role. However, after the actor requested a delay in production, director Julien Temple reportedly left the project due to the ballooning budget, which prompted Depp’s exit as well.

It would take another 13 years and various talent coming and going for Speed Racer to finally make it to the big screen. Now, the wait continues to see if Apple TV and J.J. Abrams can successfully revitalize the franchise.