EdSkrein

Ed Skrein Pulls Out of Hellboy Reboot

 

Deadpool star Ed Skrein has dropped his role from the upcoming Hellboy reboot amidst huge upset from it’s fan base following the ethnicity of his character. Skrein was set to play Major Ben Daimio who is described as Japanese-American in the graphic novels.  Something, we can agree, Skrein is neither.

Skrein amicably stepped back from the role as he did not realise the race of the character at the time of accepting. He then went on to say that he was stepping down so that ‘the role can be cast appropriately.’

His actions have received praise from actors such as Rogue One’s Riz Ahmed after news of his casting has reignited pubic accusations of of “whitewashing” in Hollywood.  Similar arguments have stemmed from recent productions such as the casting of Finn Jones in Marvel’s Iron Fist series.

Skrein made the following statement on Twitter;

As well as receiving wide spread praise across the internet for a rather ballsy move, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola gave thanks.

Hellboy is set for release in 2019 with director Neil Marshall (The Descent, Dog Soldiers) to helm the project.  Stranger Things’ star David Harbour has signed on to play Big Red, with Ian McShane taking on John Hurt’s role as Professor Broom and Mila Jovovich as Nimue the Blood Queen and the main antagonist of the movie.

Despite numerous (and often desperate) attempts for a third Ron Perlman and Guillermo del Toro Hellboy movie, it never came to happen.  Perlman and del Toro took to Twitter to conduct a live voting poll, promising fans that if they reached 100,000 likes in 24 hours then they would finally sit down to discussing the completion of the trilogy.  Unfortunately, in February 2017, del Toro posted on Twitter stating, ‘Spoke with all parties. Must report that 100% the sequel will not happen.’


What do you think to Ed Skrein’s decision?  Was it the right thing to do or a very silly move?  Is Hollywood faced with a serious “whitewashing” problem? Leave your comments below or on Facebook.

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