According to Edgar Ramirez, his Jungle Cruise antagonist is more complicated than a typical villain. After being delayed from last year by the coronavirus pandemic, Disney's latest ride-to-movie adaptation will arrive this weekend in theaters and on Disney+ via Premier Access. Jungle Cruise stars Emily Blunt as a scientist searching for a mystical tree and Dwayne Johnson as the riverboat captain who agrees to act as her guide. The two must learn to trust each other in order to survive the threats of the Amazon, which include a German prince equally interested in finding the tree (Jesse Plemons) and cursed conquistadors.
Ramirez's Aguirre falls into the latter category. As the various Jungle Cruise trailers have revealed, Aguirre and his men are cursed. Instead of being whole humans, they're partially inhabited by elements of the jungle. For example, Aguirre has snakes writhing under his skin, making for some unnerving visuals. Blunt and Johnson's Jungle Cruise heroes, along with Jack Whitehall's McGregor, must square off against Aguirre in their search for the legendary tree.
Screen Rant received the opportunity to sit down with Ramirez ahead of Jungle Cruise's release and talk to him about his villainous character. At least, to outsiders he might seem like a villain. In Ramirez's eyes, Aguirre is far more complex than a standard bad guy because of his motivations. He said:
Edgar Ramirez: It's light and darkness happening at the same time. Aguirre is more complex than a villain. Actually, I don't see him as a villain; he is the antagonist, in any case.
And his intentions were noble - he came to this jungle out of noble reasons. He wanted to save the life of someone very dear to him, and then things didn't work out. And unfortunately, he crossed over to the darkness. That I can understand. I don't justifying, but I understand it. I understand his reasons, and that made him very fun to explore and very fun to play.
All of the best villains are ones who have understandable motivations. A notable example from the past few years include Black Panther's Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), who remains a favorite within the MCU. It'll be interesting to see how Ramirez's Aguirre stacks up against other cinematic antagonists after Jungle Cruise arrives. As the actor said, Aguirre had his own reasons for venturing into the jungle, and they could elicit some genuine sympathy in his plight.
Of course, whether that's enough to get audiences to root for him over the Rock and Blunt remains to be seen. Though they might not seem like a natural pair, the reviews for Jungle Cruise have all agreed Johnson and Blunt work exceptionally well together. With both Aguirre and Plemons' Prince Joachim standing in their way, their characters really have to get along in order to win. Audiences can make their own decisions about which characters in Jungle Cruise are more sympathetic when it arrives in just a few days, but Ramirez makes a compelling case for seeing the complexity within his cursed soldier.
