Leigh Whannell's Green Hornet Reboot Fixes A 56-Year-Old Kato Mistake
Leigh Whannell's upcoming movie Green Hornet & Kato is finally acknowledging Kato's importance to the franchise with its title. A major chapter in Bruce Lee's career, The Green Hornet franchise stretches back to the '40s as a radio serial but really took off in the late '60s with The Green Hornet TV series, which starred Van Williams as Britt Reid, a.k.a. the Green Hornet, and Bruce Lee as Kato. Though other comic book and cinematic adaptations have been made since, Whannell's film is arguably the first to be very upfront about the most obvious point: Kato is the real star.
Since its beginnings, The Green Hornet franchise has ostensibly positioned Reid as the leading hero with Kato as his driver and sidekick, but Kato has consistently been the real draw ever since Lee donned his mask. Lee's timing of taking the role was particularly fortuitous, as martial arts were still in their infancy in the American mainstream when The Green Hornet began in 1966, with Bruce Lee's fighting style as Kato a true revelation for Western audiences.
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Though The Green Hornet only ran for one season, Lee gave the show its staying power, with the series even being re-titled The Kato Show in Hong Kong. Kato has since been adapted in various comic book runs and in 2011's The Green Hornet with Seth Rogen and Jay Chou, while the Hong Kong Black Mask movies with Jet Li and Andy On even gave their hero a Kato-inspired mask and suit. Whannell's movie is making clear with its title that it is well aware of Kato's significance to the Green Hornet franchise by placing him in the title from the start for the first time.
While Kato's role in The Green Hornet and Kato will likely be similar in
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