Yahoo News Here's why Angel Has Fallen dropped Aaron Eckhart's president
Despite the lacklustre critical response to the ...Has Fallen series, a third movie in the franchise is coming to cinemas imminently. Regardless its predecessors' poor ratings, action movie lovers could turn out in droves for Angel Has Fallen.
Angel Has Fallen is set an indeterminate amount of time after London Has Fallen, the middle movie in the trilogy. Gerard Butler returns as Secret Service agent Mike Banning, but this time he's been framed for an attack on the president.
But not the president you remember...
Fans were surprised to see a lack of Aaron Eckhart in the trailer. Eckhart played President Benjamin Asher in both Olympus Has Fallen and London Has Fallen. Now he's been replaced by Morgan Freeman as President Allan Trumbull.
But why?
According to Eckhart himself, President Asher has retired and is off golfing somewhere (via Collider).
The idea of a president retiring in the middle of their term is almost unfathomable, so in all likelihood, Asher saw out the last of his days in power before heading to the range.
Despite Morgan Freeman being vice president in London Has Fallen, it's a stretch to believe he ran for the top position and won the election as that's very uncommon.
The only vice presidents later elected to the Oval Office were John Adams in 1797, Thomas Jefferson in 1801, Martin Van Buren in 1837, and George HW Bush in 1989. Not that the ...Has Fallen series is particularly realistic.
Eckhart isn't the only familiar face missing. Leah, Banning's wife, was played by Radha Mitchell in the first two movies. But she's swapped out for Piper Perabo in Angel Has Fallen.
Reviews for Angel Has Fallen have been, perhaps surprisingly, not horrendous. Many have cited the movie's effort to tone down the rabid jingoism of the first two films.
The Independent wrote: "The film’s script never goes beyond vague anti-war statements... but as these two men share their gripes and grumbles, it provides a welcome change of pace from the non-stop action that dominates the rest of the film."
Whether fans turn out at the box office for the third in the series remains to be seen, but if they do they're in for a new type of action film. Sort of.
Angel Has Fallen is out in UK cinemas on August 23
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