The Great Wall received something of a backlash when its teaser trailer was originally released back in July. The sight of Matt Damon protecting the Great Wall Of China and seemingly leading a Chinese army against a hoard of monsters led to accusations of Hollywood whitewashing. The problem was we didn't know anything about the film or its plot. But now Matt Damon has sought to end this confusion, revealing exactly what The Great Wall will consist of and, at the same time, he helped bring an end to accusations that he is playing a role that was originally meant for a Chinese actor.
Matt Damon opened up about his role to Comic Book.com last week at the New York Comic Con, as he provided the largest synopsis yet of The Great Wall and revealed exactly why his character is at the Great Wall Of China. Damon explained:
There are three Westerners in the movie; it's Pedro and me and Willem Dafoe. And we play these guys who are mercenaries who basically come to steal gun powder from the Chinese and we've heard of this legendary weapon and we want to bring it back to the West and try to conquer the West with it. And we kind of stumble upon this secretive army that basically exists to defend the Great Wall against these monsters that attack every 60-years. And we kind of stumble upon them on the eve of this battle and prove ourselves useful enough that we end up fighting with them against this assault of monsters.
While that description should be more than enough to get you excited for the release of The Great Wall, if you are still on the fence, you should immediately be convinced by the fact that it's being directed by the legendary filmmaker Zhang Yimou, who previously oversaw Hero and House Of Flying Daggers. If there are any of you left that are still undecided, not only are you just being silly, but you should devour the full-length trailer for The Great Wall to immediately recognize the error of your ways.
Those of you that are still wondering how the first trailer for The Great Wall was interpreted as white-washing by some can watch the teaser below. You can kind of see where they're coming from, but, considering it literally gives nothing away about the plot or its characters, it was still rather silly of cynics to instantly throw out accusations.
You can read Matt Damon's thoughts regarding the whole Great Wall debacle here, while The Great Wall itself will be released on February 17, 2017.
