Just one week after it was announced that Ed Skrein would be joining the Hellboy movie reboot, the actor is already leaving the project due to controversy over his casting. News that Skrein had been cast as Major Ben Daimio, a character who is Japanese-American in the original comics, was met with widespread backlash, as it was seen as yet another instance of a white actor being cast as an Asian character in a major Hollywood film, as we’ve seen most recently with Tilda Swinton in Doctor Strange and Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell.
But on Monday, Skrein set himself apart from actors who have been in the same situation before him by doing something unsual: He withdrew from the project. “I accepted the role unaware that the character in the original comics was of mixed Asian heritage,” he wrote in a statement. “There has been intense conversation and understandable upset since that announcement, and I must do what I feel is right.”
Skrein, who is known for his roles as Ajax in Deadpool and as Daario Naharis during Season 3 of Game of Thrones, explained that he had decided to “step down so that the role can be cast appropriately” and wrote about how his own family influenced his decision:
Representation of ethnic diversity is important, especially to me as I have a mixed heritage family. It is our responsibility to make moral decisions in difficult times and to give voice to inclusivity. It is my hope that one day these discussions will become less necessary and that we can help make equal representation in the Arts a reality.
Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen is also set to star Ian McShane, Milla Jovovich, and David Harbour as the titular superhero. In a statement to Variety, Lionsgate supported the decision for Skrein to leave the production: “Ed came to us and felt very strongly about this. We fully support his unselfish decision. It was not our intent to be insensitive to issues of authenticity and ethnicity, and we will look to recast the part with an actor more consistent with the character in the source material.”
The full statement from Skrein is below:
