Cars 3 shocked fans when the first thing it showed was Lightning McQueen getting into a major wreck. Since then the film has slowly begun to show us more about what the story really is and now we have our best look yet at the film's apparent antagonist, Jackson Storm. While we've seen what this next generation racer looks like, now we finally get a chance to see what kind of a character he is. Unsurprisingly, he's a fairly smug ass. Check it out.
Jackson Storm is voiced by Armie Hammer and in this trailer, we finally get to hear his voice and that goes a long way to giving us an idea what sort of character he really is. He's a dick. We hear him make comments to Lightning telling him he "had a good run" but the tone clearly indicates that the real meaning is "get the hell out of my way." Storm is the new "rookie sensation," as Lightning was once before, and now Storm is ready to push all the old timers out of the way.
This appears to be the primary difference between the new Jackson Storm and the old Lightning McQueen. While Lightning was young and cocky and believed he was the best racer to ever hit the track, there was never any indication that he didn't have any respect for those that came before him. Everything about Storm says that he lacks that respect. His tone when talking to Lightning is sarcastic. The look on his face makes it clear he thinks he's got better things to do.
In addition to hearing the voice of Jackson Storm, the trailer opens with another familiar voice, that of Paul Newman as Doc Hudson. I learned recently that Doc will be back in some capacity, thanks to the hours of additional audio that Pixar has from the actor's original Cars recording sessions. We also get a bit more from Nathan Fillion as Sterling, the new owner of the Rust-eze racing team.
While it remains to be seen just how big a part of Cars 3 Jackson Storm will actually be, it does appear the movie will set these two up as real rivals. While the original Cars movie had a big race that Lightning wanted to win, a character like Chick Hicks was more an obstacle than a rival. Here, it does really seem like McQueen will have a focused determination to beat this one guy. While there's a fairly good chance that he will, sometimes sports movies end with the hero losing. We'll find out which kind this is when the movie races into theaters June 16.
