The Outsider is a 2018 Japanese-American crime drama thriller film directed by Martin Zandvliet and written by Andrew Baldwin. It stars Jared Leto, Tadanobu Asano, Kippei Shiina, Shiori Kutsuna, and Emile Hirsch and follows an American who becomes a member of the Japanese yakuza. Michael Fassbender was considered to star in the film when Daniel Espinosa was in talks to direct. Then, Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike was slated to direct the film with Tom Hardy in the titular role. However, the search for a new lead after Hardy’s departure from the project conflicted with Miike’s own commitments, which caused his dropout as well. Jared Leto was confirmed to join the cast on 2016. Leto grew out his hair and beard for most of the year to prepare for the role of Nick Lowell and assume the appearance of an American prisoner of war. The movie received mostly positive reviews from critics, and performed well at the box office, grossing $33 million on a $10 million budget.