User blog comment:Manuel de la Fuente/Why Levi is not in the live-action movies? Screenwriter finally answers/@comment-25933906-20150723191709/@comment-5774380-20150723204109

Each country makes movies for their own people, so I can't blame them for that. And if I put myself in their shoes, I think I can understand their point of view. They are not making these movies only for the AoT fans, but also for a larger segment of the population that don't know about the existence of the series and who will see the movies with no idea about what to expect, attracted only by the posters and TV spots (exactly as it happens with any movie based on a comic or a book).

So if I'm Japanese and I'm going to see a Japanese movie where all characters are German for no apparent reason... well, that would be weird. I would take it as something interesting, but for many people it might seem confusing or silly (or worse), and they probably thought that would negatively impact the box office. If that assumption was correct or wrong, we will never know.