‘Daredevil’ actor accuses Marvel exec of racism

Peter Shinkoda alleges Jeph Loeb said ‘nobody cares about Asians’

Daredevil actor Peter Shinkoda has recently revealed that his storyline was cut after a Marvel executive said "nobody cares about" Asian characters, reported BBC.

Shinkoda played Nobu in the Marvel Netflix series, which was cancelled at the end of 2018. But the actor says his character's back story was dropped after orders came from former Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb. "I'm kind of reluctant to say this, but... I'm going to take this moment," Shinkoda said during a virtual talk.

"Jeph Loeb told the writers' room not to write for Nobu and Gao – and this was reiterated many times by many of the writers and show runners – that nobody cares about Chinese and Asian people," he alleged.

The Canadian actor, who was taking part in a #SaveDaredevil roundtable discussion with actors from the show, said a storyline about Nobu's journey to America ended up being dropped. "The writers told me they regret it and they were reluctant to do it, so I had to concoct this other storyline and rock that material I was given."

Shinkoda says Loeb had referred to Marvel's Blade trilogy, in which a vampire hunter kills hundreds of Asian characters who have no back story, to make a point. The actor also added that neither he nor Wai Ching Ho were invited to the season two premiere.

In the series, Nobu is a part of supervillain organisation that is helping fellow villain Madame Gao, played by Wai Ching Ho, but neither character's back story has been elaborated upon.

Loeb's representatives have been contacted for comments. The executive has production credits on a number of Marvel TV shows – including Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist – which was accused of "appropriating Asian mysticism" for featuring a white man in the leading role.

Whereas Iron Fist was the first Marvel show on Netflix to be cancelled – followed by Luke Cage, Daredevil, Jessica Jones among others.

The cancellations came after Netflix began creating more of its own original content, ahead of Marvel Television becoming part of Marvel Studios, which is owned by Disney. Thus, a number of TV shows from the Marvel universe are expected to launch on Disney's streaming platform soon.

Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.