Last year came with surprising news of Netflix announcing a My Hero Academia live-action remake. Many fans inevitably were happy about seeing their favorite characters not just in animated forms, but as real humans.
However, there was a part of the fandom that was wary about Kohei Horikoshi’s popular manga being attempted to be made into a live-action adaptation.
And proving those worries right, it seems Netflix is not only adapting it as a live-action movie but is also set into adapted the characters’ races.
Basically, an IMDb update brought to light that Netflix is thinking of giving the all-Japanese characters an all-White cast. Although it hasn’t been confirmed yet, fans are obviously not happy about it.
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Netflix to introduce an all-White cast for My Hero Academia?
Although Netflix is yet to reveal more details of the plotline of the movie, it is expected to be set around Izuku Midoriya’s journey of being born Quirkless in a world where being so was not only an anomaly but almost shameful to becoming the most powerful Hero after becoming the successor of the Quirk One For All, from All Might.
Intriguingly Midoriya’s power comes with the ability to unlock all its predecessors’ powers as well, as was seen in the manga and anime over the seasons.
However, given the limited time of a movie, it is expected to adapt from only the first season or two that shows Midoriya finally being accepted into U.A. Academy, and the struggles that then he and his other Class 1A peers have to tackle.
Now although, this evidently sparked interest in the numerous fans of the manga and anime worldwide, a lot of people were certainly worried about it. Especially given the way Netflix’s past attempts at live-action adaptations of anime went.
And proving those people right, this interesting bit of news came to light very recently with IMDb suddenly updating the cast list of the My Hero Academia live-action remake. People are obviously angry as an all-White cast for characters who are very obviously Japanese, with Japanese names no less seems strange to them.
Although it is yet unconfirmed, the main cast list featured, David Mazouz as Izuku Midoriya, Jace Norman as Katsuki Bakugo, Graham Verchere as Shoto Todoroki, Isaac Hempstead as Tenya Iida, and Isabel Gameros as Ochaco Uraraka.
And the likes of Logan Riley, Lily Sanelippo, Mimi Webb and Nico Greetham, and others are expected to join in other important roles. Now this blatant race swap didn’t sit well with the fandom at all, for obvious reasons, and they wasted no time expressing their opinions on this.
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Fans angry over Netflix’s My Hero Academia live-action remake’s alleged race swap
Kohei Horikoshi’s masterpiece My Hero Academia currently has about 50 million mangas circulating worldwide. Not only that but thanks to the massively popular anime, it also boasts one of the biggest fandoms in the world.
And now, all their rage seems to be directed at Netflix for something that seems inappropriate to them. Fans are demanding them to give the characters new names fitting for the all-White cast, and new storylines more fitting for the place the remake will take place in.
They are also urging Netflix to not involve My Hero Academia’s name in a project that they think is already setting itself up to fail even with Shinsuke Sato’s direction.
So they’re keeping the Japanese names, but they’re race swapping everyone to Caucasian?
But…. that doesn’t make any sense.
It makes even less sense than normal race swapping!
What dark hoodoo nonsense is this!?
— WolvenOne (@Wolvenone) May 30, 2023
Oh Jesus no pic.twitter.com/scUKRQT7To
— DARK SCAMANDER (@Pat_Scamander) May 29, 2023
Don’t you just love when clearly Japanese characters with Japanese names are played by White ppl 🙄 wtf this looks awful lol
— Tredici (@Syke_13) May 29, 2023
When Jace Norman is the only cast member a viewer knows, you know it’s due for disaster
— Blake W Taylor (@BlakeWesleytay2) May 29, 2023
“Mha American live action can’t hurt you it’s not real”
Mha American live action:— kaii (@karamikaii) May 29, 2023
i suppose they’re gonna change everyone’s names(bc ain’t no way they’re keeping the Japanese names for all those white people 🤡) and country and set up, might as well make a whole new story and leave mha out of it 🫶
— memi (@minjoonsoul) May 30, 2023
If this truly comes to pass, it is redundant to say how inappropriate it will be. However, it is important to mention that nothing has yet been announced or confirmed officially yet. And there have been times when IMDb updates had been wrong as well.
As a result, only time will tell if Netflix will keep the live-action characters true to their ethnicities, or change them out entirely as more details about the movie come to light.
Also Read: My Hero Academia Reveals Todoroki’s Most Powerful Move In Latest Chapter
Source: Twitter
