The Fans Want Sydney Sweeney as Tsunade in Upcoming ‘Naruto’ Live-Action Movie

Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto is one of the most popular manga and anime franchises in history. One of the “Big Three” (alongside Bleach and One Piece), Naruto has been one of the most important titles in the history of animanga, which explains why it is so popular even now. And while fans can currently enjoy the Boruto sequel series, Lionsgate is seemingly bringing us a dash of nostalgia, as the studio has announced that it was working on a live-action movie based on the Naruto franchise. And while the project is still in the very early stages of production, this hasn’t stopped fans from expressing their casting wishes.

Namely, an online fan campaign has been launched for popular actress Sydney Sweeney to play Tsunade, one of the most popular characters in the whole series, in the upcoming live-action movie. Whether Sweeney is going to play anyone in the movie is unknown at this moment, but this casting seems to be a tad problematic.

And while Sweeney has some experience in such movies, thanks to her recent role in Madam Web, the role of Tsunade is something completely different. Tsunade is a complex character with a lot of experience and a character who is so popular that she simply has to be done right. Not that Sweeney couldn’t do it, but she is definitely too young for the role at this point.

Namely, in Shippuden, Tsunade was around 55 years old, which means that she was around 50 in the original Naruto series. Sweeney is 26 years old, which means that Tsunade is double her age at the moment. While we do know that technology can do miracles these days, casting a young woman of 26 into the role of an experienced 50-year-old kunoichi whose life had been plagued by tragedies just seems like the wrong thing to do.

Tsunade has to be done right and casting Sweeney probably wouldn’t do it. The campaign is probably based on the fact that they have some physical resemblances, the two of them, but while Tsunade does not look her age, this is nothing strange in anime, but it would be very visible in a live-action movie.

Having said this, there are probably other roles that Sweeney would be great at as far as the Naruto franchise is concerned, but Tsunade is really not one of them, so the campaign should definitely head in another direction, one that is more likely to happen.

The only thing about the movie that we know so far is that Destin Daniel Cretton, who co-wrote and directed the Marvel Studios movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, has been approached to write and direct the movie. There is no release window, nor have there been any casting updates, but we will definitely be keeping you up-to-date, so don’t forget to follow us.

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