In a decision ostensibly made in order to not offend, Taika Waititi’s upcoming series remake of Terry Gilliam’s “Time Bandits” won’t have dwarfs accompanying protagonist Kevin on his adventures, but rather regularly sized individuals.
This was confirmed by the series’ first official photo, via EW.
Kevin (Kal-El Tuck) can be seen standing in a field side-by-side with the Time Bandits (Tasha Murphy, Roger Jean Nsengiyumva, Kiera Thompson, and Rune Temte) and their leader Penelope (played by Lisa Kudrow), a new character developed exclusively for the series.
In Gilliam’s film, Kevin’s height is on par with the Time Bandits themselves, it’s a crucial aspect of the 1981 classic. Part of the charm of the original are the dwarfs themselves and the interactions they have about the size difference with Kevin. Waititi has clearly opted to nix this amusing aspect and opt for regularly sized bandits instead.
I’ve never gotten why this keeps happening in the industry. You could have had five rare acting roles for dwarfs in this series and, instead, to avoid backlash, Waititi decided to replace them with normal sized actors. It makes no sense. Acting jobs are being taken away from dwarfs. Call it “dwarf erasure” or “dwarfism.”
I should mention that I’ve had a spy who was part of the production on this series, and they had previously told me it was a real mess of a shoot with Gilliam himself reportedly not a fan of Waititi’s attempt to revive his creation.
This crew member spoke to me on December 2022 about Gilliam’s visit to the New Zealand set, and how Gilliam allegedly walked off after finding himself massively disappointed with the entire production. “He wasn’t happy,” said the insider. “He kept groaning and making remarks. Terry was supposed to be there for two weeks but he left after three days.”
“His disdain for the entire project was quite obvious,” they added. “You probably won’t be hearing any praise for this series from him anytime soon.”
Waiti’s “Time Bandits” is set to premiere on Apple TV+ July 24.