The live-actionAttack on Titanmovies made the fatal mistake of leaving out the anime’s best character. One of the most popular anime series of the last decade,Attack on Titanpremiered in 2013 as an adaptation of Hajime Isayama’s manga. Although a second season of the anime would only be released in 2017, fans of the show got to see a two-part live-action movie released in the meantime. Unfortunately,neitherAttack on Titan: Part 1norAttack on Titan: Part 2were nearly as good as their source material.
Set in a world where the last of humanity has to survive the wrath of mysterious creatures known as Titans,Attack on Titanhas made its mark on pop cultureand will go down as one of thebest anime series of all time. While aHollywood live-action adaptationofAttack on Titannever happened, Eren’s story got the big screen treatment with two Japanese movies released back to back on August 1 and June 02, 2025.
The Live-Action Attack On Titan Movie Was Finished Once It Cut Levi Ackerman’s Character
Levi Ackerman Doesn’t Appear In The Live-Action Attack On Titan
There are a lot of things that don’t work about theAttack on Titanmovie, but the decision to remove Levi Ackerman from the story and replace him with an original character is arguably the worst of them. It is safe to say that the live-actionAttack on Titanfilm was finished once it left Levi out and decided to replace his role in the story – as well as that of two other major characters – with Shikishima.Levi Ackerman is not only arguably the most popularAttack on Titancharacterbut also one of the most famous anime side characters.
It is not unusual for supporting anime characters to seal the show and outshine the protagonist at least during some arcs, fromVegeta inDragon Ball Zto Sasuke in inNaruto Shippuden. As fascinating of a character as Eren Yeager was,Levi Ackerman was just too effortlessly cool.The greatest warrior among the Scouts, Levi was worth an entire army and could take on a horde of Titans by himself if it ever came to it. Leaving Levi out of the live-action movies, regardless of the reason, just didn’t make sense.
Replacing Levi Ackerman With Shikishima Proves A Harsh Reality About The Movie
Shikishima Replaced Three Characters In The Attack On Titan Movies
Adapting a story likeAttack on Titaninto a live-action movie is very challenging given the scope of the manga. While the visuals of the Titans in the live-action films worked surprisingly well –the Titans were actually scary in theAttack on Titanmovies– everything else couldn’t live up to the source material.Attack on Titanisn’t just a survival story about humans fighting monsters, it’s an epic saga full of great characters and a lot of twists. The live-action films failed to capture this and felt like generic monster movies.
The Armored Titan is referred to as the White Titan in the live-action movies.
Attack on Titan: Part 1introduces Captain Shikishima, who replaces Levi’s role in the story as the most famous and skillful member of the Scouts. Curiously, Shikishima also replaces Reiner in the movies, as he is secretly the film’s version of the Armored Titan. Lastly, Shikishima technically replaces Zeke too since he is revealed to be Eren Yeager’s brother. TheAttack on Titanfilms took way too many creative liberties and were far from an accurate adaptation of the beloved series.
