It wasn’t too long ago that we announced William Fichtner was going to be playing a character known as Eric Sachs. At the time, the assumption and all reports suggested that Eric Sachs would be Shredder. If you haven’t seen the movie yet and you’re not a fan of spoilers, you might want to stop reading now, because the rest of this article requires a basic understanding of the plot from Jonathan Liebesman’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film.

For those of us in the know, it’s clear now that Eric Sachs actually isn’t everyone’s favorite bad guy, he’s just a partner/henchman for the Shredder – or at least that’s the impression given by the film. Despite that, some fans have speculated about whether or not Fichtner was ever intended to play Shredhead originally, and he pretty much confirmed this a few months ago.

There were more than a few hints to this origin, including clothing worn by the character of Eric Sachs and the language he uses. Heck, in previous interviews about his role, William Fichtner seemed all too happy to be recognized as playing the role of Shredder, and even confirmed that there were originally plans for at least three movies. A recent interview with the actor was similarly enlightening, albeit for different reasons.

While discussing his recurring role in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, Fichtner was asked about whether or not he felt bad about losing the role of Shredder. He had the following to say about his experiences with the first film:

“Not at all, actually. Without getting into too much detail, I really understood why it might be stronger to separate [Sachs and Shredder]. And I’ve said this a million times, I’m such a producer-friendly guy. Because when we talked about making some changes on the film, and dial it in a little bit better and not go in this direction because we’re going to go in that direction, I ultimately felt it was a better movie. And that’s putting myself out of the equation. I just thought the thought process to separate Shredder from Sachs was a better movie.”

Eric Sachs was originally intended to be Shredder, but this was altered at the last second and he was instead made an associate of Oroku Saki. Was Fichtner right that this decision made for a better movie? Who knows. We haven’t seen what the film was originally intended to be, and it would be difficult for anyone to determine how good it could have been.

Regardless of the possibilities, what we do know is that the film was commercially successful in a variety of markets. As a result of its success, the sequel was greenlit and is scheduled to go into production this April in New York. Fichtner has said that he will be coming back for the second film, but it’s difficult to discern where they will take his character from here. After all, they could change everything up and go in an entirely different direction from here on out, and we could discover that there’s more to Eric Sachs now than there ever was before.

What do you think? Was it a good decision to make Eric Sachs an accomplice instead of the main villain? Let us know in the comments below. Whatever the case may be, we’re excited to see where producers and director Dave Green will take this project. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 is set to be released during the summer of 2016.