Akira Toriyama, the man behind Dragon Ball Z, once mentioned in a 2013 Q&A interview during the premiere of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, that he wanted Hollywood megastar Jackie Chan to take on the role of Goku in 2009’s live-action adaptation, Dragonball Evolution. The excerpts come to us via Kanzenshuu, a website that maintains Dragon Ball Trivia.
Jackie Chan, who rose to prominence with his action-comedy flick – Police Story (1985), even said during a 1995 interview that he found the manga interesting and looked to make a Dragon Ball movie.
Akira Toriyama, who was involved with Dragonball Evolution as a co-screenwriter alongside director James Wong (Final Destination), did not expect the film to bomb at the box office; though he defended it.
Justin Chatwin eventually got to play Goku and the film was subjected to rave reviews with movie critics ripping it apart. On a meager budget of $30 million, the film managed to make $56 million and has a 15% RT score.
Akira Toriyama Wanted Jackie Chan For Goku In Dragon Ball Evolution
Appearing on the Japanese Fuji TV’s Mando Kobayashi program in March of 2013, Akira Toriyama sat down with a couple of guests to talk about his film, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, which was released the same month.
Host – Kendo Kobayashi asked him a series of questions, ranging from his past experiences and manga characters. He got to the part when he asked him about his favorite actor to play Goku.
He replied in textual format –
“If it were back when Jackie Chan was still young, I suppose I would have thought, ‘Nobody could play Goku but him.’”
Around the time of the release of Dragonball Evolution, Chan had his plate full as he had finished Rush Hour 3 (2007) and was working on The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) and Kung Fu Panda (2008).
Jackie Chan Once Desired Making Dragon Ball Film
After Akira Toriyama ended the manga serialization of Dragon Ball (via Kanzenshuu), Dragon Ball Daizenshuu, which is a series of guidebooks that came out in 1995, interviewed Jackie Chan.
Chan had just finished Drunken Master II in 1994 and was working on Rumble in the Bronx (1995) and Police Story 4: First Strike (1996), but he had time to give his views on how much he loved Dragon Ball.
“For a long time, I had heard from those around me that Dragon Ball was interesting. So I watched the anime, then read all of the Chinese editions of the manga. I guess the character I like most is of course Goku. There are so many fascinating scenes. It’s a work that I’d really like to make into a movie. To make it into a live-action movie I guess you’d need a lot of amazing special effects and an enormous budget.”
Jackie Chan is now 69, and unfortunately, missed that opportunity. But, he could very well be up for Master Roshi, should there ever be another live-action adaptation!
Dragon Ball Z can be streamed on Hulu.
Source: Kanzenshuu, Daizenshuu Edition
