[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]It should not be a surprise to anyone that fandoms can be toxic at times. There always seems to be some faction of fans that insist on being too loud with their disagreement over casting for movies and television shows. I remember when Idris Elba received backlash over being cast as Heimdall in the first Thor film. Kelly Marie Tran left social media due to racist trolling after she stared in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Why do some people insist on being so angry over casting decisions that they literally harass actors online to the point of these stars having to leave social media just to escape torment?
Unfortunately, Anna Diop is just the latest artist to receive this unnecessary and uncalled for treatment. Diop plays the superhero Starfire in the upcoming Titans show, premiering on the streaming service DC Universe. In the comics and cartoon Teen Titans, Starfire is an alien with orange skin and reddish hair. The backlash Diop has received is due to her being an African American woman and some fans are unhappy with the actress for not looking like their interpretation of the character. Diop has since left Instagram due to the brutal racist trolling that she has had to deal with since the casting news.
Diop’s fellow castmate Ryan Potter, who plays Beast Boy; sat with the Associated Press and shed some light on his thoughts surrounding the vicious treatment Diop has received.
“There’s a lot of fan cultures that I’m a part of and fandoms that I’m a part of and… ultimately if you’re a fan of a project, yeah, you’re gonna take it apart to its core and you’re gonna criticize it ’cause you, as a fan, love it and want it to better and it could potentially be better. But at the end of the day, you don’t harass the actors and actresses for being a certain race or for doing a certain character. That doesn’t make any sense to me. These people are doing a job.”
As we’ve seen in many incidences, there are trolls that simply love overreacting without even conceiving having an open mind about anything. Potter is not the only one commenting on the Diop trolling; fellow castmate Minka Kelly also expressed her joy in working with Diop and commented on the Starfire actress disabling her Instagram feed due to the hateful energy from trolls.
“That so many racist cowards would take the time to attack her Instagram so that she has to shut off comments after having already shut down her entire account once before over this bullshit makes me feel rage. Though I also feel a small relief knowing how strong and thick-skinned Anna is. I know she is and will be OK,” she continued. “It takes zero courage to sit in your dark lonely room spewing your venom online while protected by your anonymous faceless accounts.”
I really do hope we come to a time where actors are not judged on the color of the skin, but for their acting ability. And for those commenting on Starfire’s outfit, we don’t know if what we see in the trailer is simply just what she wears at the beginning of the series and she’ll get her traditional costume later in the series, similar to Daredevil in the first season of his show.
You can watch the Titans trailer and see how awesome this looks and watch Anna Diop and her castmates kick ass in the upcoming tv show on DC Universe.[/vc_column_text][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/d6rWiM1BQ5E”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
A girl with too many fandoms to count.
