- "" where is Finn McMissile""
- —Zil, Cars 2
Zil (Russian: Зил) is a conceptual character in Cars 2. Originally the main antagonist, he was replaced by Miles Axlerod and Professor Zündapp.
History[]
Not much is known about Zil, but it has been revealed that early during the development of Cars 2, Zil was conceived as the main antagonist of the film, being behind the Lemons' plot to turn the entire world against alternative fuels and make money out of it. An alternate opening for the film, storyboarded back when Zil was set to be the main antagonist, a deleted scene called Prague, has Agent Heely being chased by the Lemons while trying to contact Finn McMissile until he hides in a dumpster. However, just as he believes that he is safe, Heeley discovers the wrecks of many other cars before the Lemons appear and a crane grabs him to then toss him into a car compactor. As Heeley gets his tires busted, Zil appears from the shadows and asks Heely where is Finn McMissile, but Heeley refuses to tell him, vowing that Finn would stop him. Zil is unmoved and turns around to wait for Healy to be destroyed, saying they will see the results before Heely is destroyed.[1]
While not directly appearing, in the deleted scene Oktoberfest, he orders three lemons to hunt down and kill an unnamed agent, which they succeed in. Like in the final film, Mater is mistaken by both the Lemons and the unnamed agent to be an American spy.
While once again not directly appearing in the deleted scene Meet Finn, he orders Tomber (one of the lemons from Oktoberfest who was originally a villain in this script opposed to a minor anti hero in the final film) to kill Mater but he fails. It is also revealed that Zil is planning to assassinate the the Queen.
Livery[]
According to concept art, Zil was to be painted jet black, and have a chrome bumper.
Model[]
His design is based on the 1951 ZiS-112/1, a race car made in the Soviet Union that performed poorly.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- For a while, Zil was speculated by some fans, to be recycled for appearing in Cars 3 as a minor character, but he has made no appearances.
- Axlerod and Zündapp are probably based on Zil's personality and traits they came up with, such as behind everything and positive leadership or implementation, and finally split his personality into two roles, such as Miles Axlerod is behind everything; Professor Zündapp is frontal leadership or implementation.
- The true reason as to why he was cut is unknown. While some sources from Pixar claim his selected voice actor (though who it was has never been publicly revealed) died before he could record his lines, other sources state he was too dark of a character to be featured and other claims state that he was simply unpopular among producers (as opposed to Sir Miles Axlerod) thus he was replaced.[citation needed]
- So far, he only has a few lines at the end of a deleted scene storyboard, whether these were done by his said unidentified voice actor, is currently unknown.
- Zil is very similar to Xerek, the originally intended main antagonist of The Incredibles: both were initially conceived as the main antagonists of Pixar films but got replaced by another villain who proved to be more popular to the crew (Syndrome in Xerek's case, Sir Miles Axlerod in Zil's case).
References[]
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