Benicio del Toro to Play Villain in ‘Dora the Explorer’ (Exclusive)

Dora the Explorer has found her villain.

Benicio del Toro has closed a deal to voice Swiper, the thieving fox, in Paramount Players’ live-action feature based on the character from the popular Nickelodeon TV series.

The signing is a late-in-the-game development, as the movie wrapped production in Australia two weeks ago, but not an atypical one, as voice casts for CG characters also tend to be locked in when postproduction begins.  

Isabela Moner, who can currently be seen in Paramount’s dramedy Instant Family, is starring as the titular Dora, a girl accustomed to the jungle life with her parents and now forced to explore the uncharted terrain of high school.

The cast also includes Michael Pena and Eva Longoria as her parents, as well as Eugenio Derbez, Adriana Barraza and Temuera Morrison, among others.

The film’s story sees a high school-bound Dora finding herself leading Boots (a monkey and her best friend), Diego and a rag-tag group of teens on a Goonies-esque adventure to save her parents and solve the mystery behind a lost Inca civilization.

On the popular Dora TV series, Swiper appeared in nearly every episode to steal Dora’s hard-won artifacts. The pint-sized adventurer then uttered one of the show’s signature catchphrases, uttered three times, “Swiper, no swiping.”

James Bobin is directing the movie, which is set for an Aug. 2, 2019, release.

Del Toro has been on a quite a roll this year, reprising his role as a principled assassin in Sicario: Day of the Soldado, as well as The Collector for Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War. He also stars with Patricia Arquette and Paul Dano on Showtime’s acclaimed limited crime series Escape at Dannemora.

Del Toro is repped by CAA, LBI Entertainment and Hansen Jacobson.

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