Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins actor Haruka Abe admitted she had a lot of fun creating the Akiko character from scratch and would love to further explore her backstory in another movie within the revived G.I. Joe franchise.
"I knew that she was this brand new character who is being introduced to the G.I. Joe universe through this film," Abe told ComicBook.com. "And so that was very exciting because I got to create the character from scratch and she's basically the Arashikage's head of security, and her backstory isn't really revealed in the film."
Abe added that, similar to Henry Golding's Snake Eyes, Akiko was once an outsider to the clan and trained hard to earn her role as head of security.
"And the fact that her backstory is a mystery really gave me that freedom to discuss things with Robert [Schwentke] the director and get really creative and I had so much fun kind of coming up with her backstory with Robert and the team," the actor continued. "And hopefully we'll get to explore that in the future movies, but yeah, and she's a very capable fighter."
Abe further praised Akiko's loyalty to the clan, noting that "she has a very interesting dynamic with both Storm Shadow, who she butts heads with quite a lot over what's best for the clan, and with Snake Eyes, who she's very wary of because here's this complete stranger that Tommy suddenly brought home. But at the same time, she's kind of intrigued by him because they have that, there's something about him that reminds her of herself."
In related news, the creator of the Snake Eyes character -- Larry Hama -- recently dished on what it was like to have a cameo in the Snake Eyes film, saying, "That was great! They flew me to the Vancouver sound stage where they had all the interior sets, that Tokyo alley was an interior set, with a whole big sprinkler system and drains. It really was narrow and that alley was so authentic. It was amazing. They got actual Japanese air conditioners, alley furniture, boxes, and things like that."
While Snake Eyes was marketed as a spinoff of the G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013) films, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura said after the film's release that Snake Eyes actually serves as a soft reboot of the franchise. At the time, di Bonaventura admitted it was probably too late to change the messaging for the film, but he noted that "it's never too late" to rebrand the franchise moving forward. He also revealed at that time the more projects within the G.I. Joe universe are in the works.
Directed by Robert Schwentke, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins is available digitally now and arrives on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD Oct. 19.
Source: ComicBook.com