Zil

**Zil** was the main antagonist of early versions of the 2011 Pixar film *Cars 2*, the sequel to *Cars*. He is a Russian criminal mastermind behind the plot to turn the entire world against alternative fuels and make money out of it. However, Zil was replaced in the role by Sir Miles Axlerod when the latter proved to be more popular among the producers.

## Biography

Not much is known about Zil, but it has been revealed that early during the development of *Cars 2*, Zil was conceived as the main antagonist of the film, being behind the Lemons' plot to turn the entire world against alternative fuels and make money out of it.
An alternate opening for the film, storyboarded back when Zil was set to be the main antagonist, has Leland Turbo (a character who is killed off early on the finished film albeit offscreen) being chased by the Lemons while trying to contact Finn McMissile until he hides in a dumpster. However, just as he believes that he is safe, Leland discovers the wrecks of many other cars before the Lemons appear and a crane grabs him to then toss him into a car compactor. As Leland gets his tires busted, Zil appears from the shadows and asks Leland where is Finn McMissile, but Leland refuses to tell him, vowing that Finn would stop him. Unmoved, Zil says that they will see before Leland is destroyed.

While not directly appearing, in the deleted scene Oktoberfest, he orders 3 lemons to hunt down and kill Rod Redline, which they succeed in. Like in the final film, Mater is mistaken by both the lemons and Rod for an American spy. Zil is informed off-screen.

While once again not directly appearing in the deleted scene Meet Finn, he orders Tomber (one of the lemons from Oktoberfest who was originally a villain in this script opposed to a minor anti hero in the final film) to kill Mater but he fails. We also learn Zil is planning to assassinate the Queen of England.

Zil then reappears on a train to Spain when he abducts Mater with his assistant Giulia's help. He then transports the tow truck back to Prague.

## Relationships

### Allies

* Lemons:
	+ Giulia
	+ Tomber

### Enemies

* Finn McMissile
* Leland Tubo/Agnet Healy
* Mater

## Trivia

* For a while, Zil was speculated to be recycled for appearing in *Cars 3* as a minor character, but he has made no appearances.
* The true reason as to why he was cut is unknown. While some sources from Pixar claim his selected voice actor (though who it was has never been publicly revealed) died before he could record his lines, other sources state he was too dark of a character to be featured and other claims state that he was simply unpopular among producers (as opposed to Sir Miles Axlerod) thus he was replaced.
* As his name suggests, Zil is based on vehicles produced by the Soviet company "*ZiL (Zavod Imeni Likhachova)*", in particular the 1951 *ZIL 112/1* racing car, who performed terribly.
* Zii is very similar to Xerek, the originally intended main antagonist of *The Incredibles*: both were initially conceived as the main antagonists of Pixar films but got replaced by another villain who proved to be more popular to the crew (Syndrome in Xerek's case, Sir Miles Axlerod in Zil's case).