Ryan Reynolds' Dragon Ball Z Movie Teaser Has One Tiny Problem: It's Fake

Ryan Reynolds as the legendary anime character Goku in a live-action "Dragon Ball Z" movie is a pretty wild idea. That said, the combination of the versatility Reynolds shows in his many underrated movies and his "Deadpool" success has made it very clear that he can play just about any role. And, as a new AI-created "Dragon Ball Z" movie teaser proves, Reynolds would indeed fit the role of Goku surprisingly well.

Of course, the teaser is just as fake as those "Dragon Ball Z" Netflix movie posters you may have come across online, but it's still pretty intriguing. Advancing at a leisurely pace, the mock trailer introduces several surprisingly realistic versions of various "Dragon Ball" characters — and the "cast" is pretty impressive, too. 

Apart from Reynolds as Goku, we see Luke Evans as Vegeta, Emilia Clarke as Bulma, Gemma Chan as Chi-Chi, "Pirates of the Caribbean" star Martin Klebba as Krillin, and Idris Elba as a particularly imposing version of Piccolo that eschews the character's green skin color and seems to draw some design elements from Elba's role as Heimdall in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Gohan is Timothée Chalamet, and Harry Styles is cast as Trunks. Meanwhile, the action star corner of the cast is occupied by Jackie Chan's Master Roshi, Jason Statham's Tien Shinhan, and Jason Momoa's Broly.

The AI teaser focuses on character design and fan-casting, and some of the choices it makes are interesting, to say the least. While Reynolds is no doubt a fascinating choice as Goku, it's worth noting that the clip features precious few Asian characters for a work based on an anime franchise — in fact, Gemma Chan, Jackie Chan, and Jason Momoa are the only people present with Asian or Pacific Islander heritage. The maker of the video, Stryder HD, addressed some of their choices in a YouTube comment.

"In terms of Piccolo's skin color for this video, I tried the green in the A.I. and it wasn't coming out right at all, but I truly think he'd be great for the part," they wrote about Idris Elba's Piccolo design. "Also in terms of the ethnicities of most characters in the Dragon Ball universe, especially Earthlings (Krillin, Chi-Chi, Tien Shinhan) I really didn't know whether they'd be Asian or Caucasian, so please allow for some creative space."

While whitewashing would normally guarantee a spot on a list of the worst Hollywood adaptations of all time, it's worth noting that no one's actually making this particular movie. Like the "Barbenheimer" AI trailer, the fake "Dragon Ball Z" teaser simply reimagines and pays homage to the source material. Since "Dragon Ball" creator and famed manga artist Akira Toriyama died on March 1, it's no surprise that people are choosing to celebrate his most beloved works. And even though this particular AI teaser was released before Toriyama's death was announced, it certainly puts in the effort to honor the master's work.