I’d say they not only missed opportunity but somehow also the overall ongoing trend of going back to the orthogonal aesthetics, which were precisely what defined the original DeLorean so distinctively. I mean just look at the Tesla Pickup or Hyuandai Ioniq 5! The smooth curves ain’t that sexy anymore. IMHO they’d literally would be way better off if they kept the original design as reasonably possible.

The original was junk. It only has cachet because of the association with the movie. Maybe the idea was nice, but the execution on the original was wanting.

right, but the reason it was in the movie in the first place is because the car looked neat (and John DeLorean was also uh on trial for drug charges[0])

if Bob Zemeckis scrolled by this car writing the screenplay it would probably still call for a refrigerator

[0] https://www.narfa.com/how-the-delorean-became-the-iconic-bac...

Mechanically, it was junk. Aesthetically it was amazing. It was eye catching even before the movie.